In an effort to enhance its customers' overall experience at the hospital, Madigan Army Medical Center is embarking on a review process that will help determine what areas it can improve in to better fulfill its mission.

For the last few months, Madigan officials have been starting the process of applying for the Malcom Baldrige National Quality Award. The award is the highest level of national recognition for performance excellence that a U.S. organization can receive.

While the award application process takes a few years to complete, Madigan officials are more interested in the process itself.

"It's a business model - a process that helps us look at our processes," said Dr. John Meyer, who's heading up the application project for Madigan. "You apply for it, they review the application and give you feedback on how you're performing versus the higher performing organizations."

Meyer has already created teams focusing on seven customer service related areas the hospital touches: Readiness, Population Health, Patient-centered Focus, Quality Workforce, Education and Research, Community Partnerships and Resource Management.

"We're beginning the process of looking at our processes," he said. "Now the name of the game is finding out how do all these categories line up to meet those strategic objectives."

What it all boils down to, Meyer said, is helping Madigan finding better ways to serve its customers: patients, soldiers and their families.

Using the feedback received from the application process, Madigan officials want to continue to work toward the hospital's mission: "Providing world-class military medicine and compassionate, innovative, academic health care for Warriors and Warrior Families past, present and future."

"To achieve our vision and our mission, all of our processes need to line up," Meyer said.

There are plans to officially apply for the Baldrige Award in 2012, he said.

The award is given to one hospital per year, and no military hospital has ever won the award.

Congress established the Baldrige Program in 1987 to recognize U.S. companies for their achievements in quality and business performance and to raise awareness about the importance of quality and performance excellence as a competitive edge for attaining organizational success.