Can the Federal Baldrige Survey Measure Workforce Well-being in an Academic Health Center?

Introduction. Experts suggest health care institutions switch focusfrom measuring burnout to measuring positive organizational psychology.Concerns include burnout being a late sign of organizationaldecline. The Baldrige survey is promoted by the U.S. Departmentof Commerce to measure positive worksite conditions (e.g., workforcewellbeing of industries, including health care and education).For years, the survey has been completed by managers within organizations,but now the same survey is promoted for completion byan organization’s workforce. We tested the structure of the Baldrigesurvey when completed by an academic health care workforce. Inaddition, we tested whether the results in an academic worksite correlatewith an example metric of an organizational mission.Methods.xIn 2015, our academic health center surveyed facultyand staff with the Baldrige survey. The validity of the Baldrige wastested with confirmatory factor analyses. Within the School of Medicine,responses for the Baldrige’s concepts were correlated againsta measure of organizational outcome: graduates’ assessments ofDepartmental educational quality.Results. The structure of the Baldrige survey did not validate whenassessed by a workforce (RMSEA = 0.086; CFI = 0.829; TLI = 0.815).None of its concepts correlated with learner reported educationalquality.Conclusions. The Baldrige survey, when administered to a workforcerather than managers, did not appear to measure workforcewell-being within an academic health care center. We discourage useof the current survey for this purpose. Kans J Med 2019;12(1):4-6.