Denver, CO -- (ReleaseWire) -- 01/22/2016 --Rocky Mountain Performance Excellence (RMPEx), a 501C(3) organization serving as the regional organization for the Malcolm Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, has named four organizations as 2015 recipients of performance excellence awards Three organizations were recognized at the Peak level, the highest level award for RMPEx. One organization was recognized at the Foothills level for effective approaches to basic performance excellence processes.

The 2015 RMPEx Award recipients are:

Peak Level

* AlloSource, Centennial, Colorado, which develops, processes, and distributes life-saving and life-enhancing allografts.

* Community Hospital, McCook, Nebraska, a critical access hospital serving Red Willow County in south-west Nebraska and surrounding counties in Nebraska and Kansas.

* Donor Alliance, Inc., Denver, Colorado, the federally designated nonprofit that facilitates organ and tissue donation in Colorado and most of Wyoming.

Foothills Level

* El Paso County School District 49, which serves the eastern part of Colorado Springs and the unincorporated portion of El Paso County known as Falcon.

This year's RMPEx Award honorees have applied the Baldrige Framework for Excellence to identify areas of strength and opportunities for improvement. The Peak recipients have demonstrated improvements that now make them eligible to apply for national recognition through the national Baldrige program. The Foothills recipient has demonstrated successful initiation of performance improvement processes.

Prior to this year, only five organizations had received Peak-level recognition from RMPEx. Three RMPEx applicants have also received the national award: Monfort College of Business, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, Colorado; Poudre Valley Health System, Fort Collins, Colorado (now a part of the University of Colorado Health System); and Elevations Credit Union, Boulder, Colorado. Operations Management International, Inc., Englewood, Colorado (now a part of CH2M Hill), was the first Colorado national recipient and was a founding sponsor of RMPEx.

Accomplishments like the following may lead to the 2015 RMPEx recipients being added to the list of RMPEx applicants who are recognized at the national level:

AlloSource is one of the nation's largest non-profit providers of cartilage, cellular, bone, skin and soft-tissue allografts for use in spine, sports medicine, foot and ankle, orthopedic, reconstructive, trauma and wound care applications. The company is inspired by its donors to develop innovations that advance the potential of tissue for healing patients. It demonstrates a defined, effective and integrated system for managing innovation and improving products. Their results show many areas of improving trends with some exceeding benchmarks.

Community Hospital employs a process-based management system that is thoroughly-deployed throughout the organization, using process scorecards to promote operational improvement and balanced scorecards to monitor achievement of strategic objectives. Many core measures of clinical quality show national top 10% results.

Donor Alliance, Inc. demonstrates a core competency of building relationships with transplant centers, tissue processers, donor families and employees. These relationships contribute to their vision to maximize donations. Donor Alliance achieves favorable comparisons with other OPOs in several areas and shows excellent results for regulatory and accreditation requirements.

El Paso County School District 49 has adopted the Baldrige Framework for Excellence to " improve performance by improving processes…By benchmarking our practices against high-performing enterprises in education and other industries, we can see more clearly where we are already excellent and where we have the most need to improve."

The 2015 RMPEx Award will be presented at a Quest for Excellence conference to be held this spring. In Denver. Check the RMPEx website for details to be released in January.

About RMPEx
Incorporated in 2000 as a 501(c) (3) non-profit corporation, Rocky Mountain Performance Excellence (RMPEx) helps organizations improve performance and achieve results. RMPEx is funded solely by contributions and operational revenues and is one of over 30 similar Baldrige state programs that exist throughout the U.S. The approaches used by RMPEx are based on the Baldrige Framework for Excellence, a proven best-practice program that evaluates organizations in seven areas: leadership; strategy; customers; measurement, analysis and knowledge management; workforce; operations; and results.

For more information, contact Dr. Jim Walker, RMPEx Award Program Director, at 303 893 2739 or drjimw@hotmail.com or consult the RMPEx website at http://www.rmpex.org.