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The accountability movement in public policy hails a new programme for US foreign assistance – the Millennium Challenge Account established in 2004 with the aim of ‘picking winners’ for grants among developing countries based on their demonstrated quality of governance. This article uses the MCA's own rating system to dispute its claim to know in advance which countries are best positioned to meet major development goals. High governance scores alone bear little or no relationship to growth in national income or decline in poverty. Attempting to measure public-policy performance limits the range of choice available to policy-makers, and may inadvertently limit true performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the significance of human performance improvement (HPI) in achieving a sustainable safety excellence in the U.S. According to the article, promoting HPI covers an injury process that is deep and broad. It also ensure that true root causes of human error are exposed and solutions are suitable and permanent. It cites the cross-disciplinary focus of HPI which offers a unique toolbox of infinite options which link identified gaps. Furthermore, it notes that the ability to creatively solve industrial problems is through management asset.

In current methods of profile monitoring, standards of acceptability (cut-offs) are set either by consulting panels of experts, or by selecting an arbitrary point (e.g., the 75th percentile) on the profile (statistical distribution). However, experts have only vague ideas of what outcome rates ought to be, while profile statistics stem from samples for which unknown percentages of cases have received acceptable care. Poorly chosen standards could cause profile monitoring to be ineffective, inefficient, or unnecessarily disruptive. A new method proposes to set standards by using statistics for which the percentage of adequate care has been predetermined by examining the process of care. Plans to circumvent the pitfalls involved are described, as are two approaches to estimating the degree of process adequacy from routinely produced outcome rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses some of the process improvement that companies used to reduce costs as well as increase the efficiency while maintaining the quality ad performance standards as expected by consumers in the U.S. First is to identify the areas wherein improvement opportunities were visible by starting with a problem statement. Then, identify the key process input variables of the company. It further stresses that costs, which are related to restricted workers and lost-time cases is the resulting outcome of many input variable. Moreover, it notes that those inputs must be evaluated and prioritized to ensure that precious resources are not being wasted.

The article presents an overview of the National League of Nursing's (NLN) Center of Excellence (COE) designation in the U.S. It states that the process of obtaining COE designation is described relative to the Hallmarks of Excellence in Nursing Education and offers a palette of primary characteristics that represents a level of outstanding performance or service that leads excellence. In addition, the NLN's Excellence in Nursing Education Model provides a visual map of the road to excellence and reflects eight core elements.

This article highlights the meeting of the American National Standards Institute Z359 committee at the American Society of Safety Engineer headquarters in the U.S. The committee agreed that it would not vote on additional applications until the development process is complete for Z359 standards currently in the progress. A small subgroup has been formed to address issues related to the Z359.1 draft standard. Finally, the committee made a motion and approved the ANSI/ASSE Z359.1-200x draft standard.

The article offers news briefs related to performance standards in the U.S. International Code Council and the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) have combined the 2009 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) and the ANSI/ AHSRAE/ IESNA Standard. The National Fire Association (NFPA) is planning to revise its standard for flammable gases or vapors.

This article reports on the adoption of the American Society for Quality standard, Quality Management Systems: Guidelines for Process Improvements in Health Service Organizations in the U.S. The second edition is designed to provide the content of the first guidelines. It points out that the guidelines are not the only way to interpret the ISO 9000 series of standards for health service organizations. The definitions and text given represent how the wording is used within the context of the document.

NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) has awarded Rockwell International Corp.'s Space Systems Division, Florida Operations, and Rockwell International's Rocketdyne Division the NASA KSC Excellence Award for Quality for outstanding attention to quality. Rockwell and Rocketdyne can take pride in receiving this award knowing that they have set a quality standard at KSC by which other companies will now have to measure their performance', said Alan Parrish, KSC's safety, reliability, and quality assurance director.

The article discusses research activities at National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In order to encourage small businesses to improve their quality and productivity processes, NASA is establishing a separate small business category for the 1989-90 NASA Excellence Award Program. Small businesses applying for the NASA Excellence Award for Quality and Productivity should follow the instructions as stated in the 1989-90 Excellence Award. Application reports will be accepted with as few as 15 pages.