Performance Excellence Network Recognizes Seven with Award

2024 MN Performance Excellence Awards Presented at igniteEX 2025 Conference

ST. PAUL, Minn., April 14, 2025 – The Performance Excellence Network (PEN) honors seven recipients of the 2024 Minnesota Performance Excellence Award. The Award is based on the Baldrige Framework and is the culmination of a rigorous evaluation of an organization’s management and performance system. The evaluation criteria consider leadership, strategic planning, customer-related processes, measurement and knowledge management, workforce, and operations, and recognizes organizations that are systematically improving results.

Recipients of the Award include Benedictine (Duluth, Commitment Level); four divisions of the State of Minnesota; Department of Human Services Direct Care & Treatment (various locations, each receiving Engagement Level) Ambulatory Services, Community Based Services, Forensic Services, and MN Sex Offender Program; a fifth division of State of Minnesota, Department of Human Services Direct Care & Treatment Mental Health and Substance Abuse Treatment Services (MHSATS, Advancement Level); and River’s Edge Hospital (St. Peter, Achievement Level). There have been 170 organizations and communities recognized by this program since 1991.

“Organizations today are experiencing extraordinary challenges,” said Brian Lassiter, president and CEO of the Performance Excellence Network.  “But we still have customers to serve, teams to manage, goals to achieve.  These seven organizations have demonstrated true commitment to continuous improvement and performance excellence: they are serious about navigating today’s environment and providing superior performance for the benefit of their customers and other stakeholders.”

Jerry Carley, CEO of Benedictine: “Our journey toward excellence began with a simple but powerful belief: that we could be better, smarter, more efficient, and more aligned with our mission. By doing this, we could serve our residents, families, associates, and our communities in a more meaningful way. We embraced the Baldrige Framework as not just as a checklist, but as a mindset…one rooted in integrity, learning, and continuous improvement.”

The Performance Excellence Award was given at a conference last Friday called igniteEX 2025, hosted at Mystic Lake Conference Center.  Over 350 leaders from all sectors and industries attended, primarily from a five-state region in the Upper Midwest. The conference featured nearly 40 local, regional, and national speakers from all types of organizations, each sharing best practices and methods to improve leadership, innovation, workforce engagement, resilience, and other drivers of excellence.

“Although the work we do is highly complex and unique, our Baldrige journey has made us increasingly aware of opportunities to stretch our organization towards enhanced data driven decision-making and process development,” said Dr. Soniya Hirachan, Executive Director of DCT’s Forensics Services.  “We are already seeing shifts in the way our leaders prioritize data analysis and action plan monitoring, and we have plans to incorporate our learning into next fiscal year’s strategic planning process.”

Paula Meskan, CEO of River’s Edge Hospital commented that “…the journey to Baldrige is exactly that.  It is not a destination but a continuous improvement process that helps us to get better at what we do.”

 

About Performance Excellence Network

The Performance Excellence Network was founded in 1987 by the Minnesota Legislature and Governor Rudy Perpich and was spun off into a private 501(c)3 nonprofit two years later. PEN advances improvement and performance excellence within organizations, individuals and communities. It helps leaders identify strengths and improvement opportunities, and it builds networks that bring information, resources, knowledge and best practices to organizations desiring to improve. PEN serves nearly 200 members and organizations in Minnesota and the Dakotas. The Performance Excellence Award is given in five levels: Commitment, Engagement, Advancement, Achievement, and Excellence. For more information, go to https://www.performanceexcellencenetwork.org/

About Benedictine

Benedictine (formerly Benedictine Health System) provides nursing home care, including long-stay and skilled short stay, housing that includes assisted living, memory care, independent living, and basic care plus home and community-based services on 33 campuses in five states. With over 5000 associates, Benedictine is a Catholic, faith-based organization entrusted with advancing the life-enhancing senior care ministry of the Benedictine Sisters of Duluth.  For more information: http://www.bhshealth.org/.

About River’s Edge Hospital

River’s Edge is a critical access hospital that has delivered nearly 75 years of quality care including family medicine, pediatrics, emergency room, orthopedic and general surgery to the residents of St. Peter and the surrounding communities.  REH has about 200 employees.  For more information: https://riversedgehealth.org/

About State of MN, Department of Human Services, Direct Care & Treatment

DCT is a complex behavioral health care system, operating psychiatric hospitals and other inpatient mental health treatment facilities; inpatient substance abuse treatment facilities; dental clinics, residential group homes and vocational programming for people with disabilities; and the nation’s largest secure treatment program for civilly committed sex offenders.  The divisions recognized include Ambulatory Care, Community Based Services, Forensic Services, Mental Health Substance Abuse Treatment Services (MHSATS), and Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP). With over 5000 employees that work at 160 buildings across five campuses, DCT is one of the largest state agencies in Minnesota. For more information: https://mn.gov/dhs/people-we-serve/people-with-disabilities/services/direct-care-treatment/

 

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