Harry S. Hertz

The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award concept: could it help stimulate or accelerate health care quality improvement?

The United States has a major weapon in the battle to improve competitiveness: The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Program. An increasingly asked question in industrial and health care sectors is whether there should be a Baldrige Award in health care. In the business community, the Baldrige Award has been a catalyst for cooperative development of quality criteria, assessment mechanisms, and continuous learning, greatly accelerating the pace of information sharing.

Analytical Standards and Methods for the Determination of Polynuclear Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Environmental Samplest

Abstract Standard reference materials (SRMs) have been produced, certified, and issued by the United States National Bureau of Standards (NBS) since 1905. NBS currently issues more than 1000 SRMs of various types, including nuclear materials, rubber, clinical and environmental trace metal standards. The most recent addition to this group is a series of environmental trace organic materials with certified concentrations of selected polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), phenols, and N-heterocyclic compounds. Until recently, trace organic SRMs were non-existent due to the lack of analytical methodology necessary for certification. Details concerning the analytical methods developed and used for certification of the concentrations of several PAH in SRMs 1580 (Organics in Shale Oil), 1644 (Generator Columns for PAH in water), 1647 (PAH in Acetonitrile), and 1649 (Urban Particulate Matter) are given along with some suggested uses for these SRMs.

Beyond performance excellence: research insights from Baldrige recipient feedback

Collectively, the Malcolm Baldrige Award recipients, through a consortium in which many of them participate, have wrestled with the question of how to further improve and achieve higher levels of performance. Through a process of using qualitative text coding to extract, organise, summarise, and interpret vital information from the ‘opportunities for improvement’ provided to award recipients in Baldrige feedback reports, we have uncovered some significant insights about a sample of Baldrige recipients – insights we believe are fundamental to many contemporary organisations. In this article, we focus on understanding these key challenges and opportunities, and the lessons we can learn from them to help organisations accelerate the process of improving performance, no matter what their level of maturity.

Der Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award und die Zertifizierung gemäß den Normen ISO 9000 bis 9004: Die wichtigsten Unterschiede

Mit dem Wachstum des internationalen Handels und der Offnung von Markten stehen die Kunden einem groseren Angebot von Produkten und Dienstleistungen aus aller Welt gegenuber. DieseAlternativenvielfalt erhoht die Anforderung an die Qualitat und bietet auch gleichzeitig neue marktliche Herausforderungen. So stehen z.B. einzelstaatliche Aufsichtsbehorden durch die weitweiten Beschaffungsprozesse vor der Herausforderung, die Sicherheit und Qualitat der Importprodukte zu gewahrleisten. Weiterhin stellen Unternehmen, die sich erhohten Qualitatsanforderungen gegenubersehen, hohere Anspruche an ihre Zulieferer. Als eine Folge dieser Marktentwicklungen sind exportorientierte Unternehmen und/oder Unternehmen, mit einer Vielzahl qualitatsbewuster Kunden, vielen unterschiedlichen Qualitatsanforderungen und Audits ausgesetzt. Viele glauben daher, das man em unabhangiges, einheitliches, zuverlassiges, transferierbares und okonomisches System braucht, um die Ubereinstimmung von Produktionssystemen mit anerkannten Normen zu beurteilen.

Organic Marker Compounds for Environmental Analysis

Abstract Marker compounds have been used extensively in fields such as clinical chemistry, but their use in environmental analyses has been minimal. Two definitions of marker compounds and their use in environmental assessment will be discussed in this paper. The first definition is the use of marker compounds as internal reference compounds for quantitative analysis of pollutants. The second definition is their use as qualitative indicators of certain types of chemical pollution.

INTERLABORATORY CALIBRATION FOR THE ANALYSIS OF PETROLEUM LEVELS IN SEDIMENT

Abstract The large number of environmental analyses to be performed in the future necessitates the existence of a common basis for comparing the data. Otherwise data obtained from different laboratories would be of limited usefulness. Furthermore, unless the data can be put on an equivalent basis, environmental standards can neither be set nor enforced. A sample, split between NBS and one other laboratory, was analyzed in order to determine the suitability of Katalla River sediment for a more extensive intercalibration exercise. The results of this limited intercomparison are discussed. The results encouraged us to initiate an enlarged intercalibration exercise which is now in progress. Comparison of the interlaboratory data should provide a measure of the analytical variability among the participating laboratories.

Determination of Trace Level Hydrocarbons in Marine Biota

ABSTRACT A method is described for the determination of hydrocarbons in marine biota. This method utilizes dynamic headspace sampling of an aqueous caustic tissue homogenate to extract and collect volatile organic components. Interfering polar biogenic (non-anthropogenic) components are removed by normal-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) prior to quantitation and identification of the hydrocarbons by gas chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. After headspace sampling the non-volatile polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are solvent extracted from the tissue homogenate, isolated using normal-phase HPLC, and analyzed by reversed-phase HPLC with ultraviolet (UV) and fluorescence detection. Results of an interlaboratory comparison of determinations of hydrocarbons in mussel tissue are also reported. KEY WORDS: aliphatic hydrocarbons, aromatic hydrocarbons, gas chromatography, headspace sampling, high-performance liquid chromatography, interlaboratory comparison, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

Vaporization of (SN)x and TTF-TCNQ

Abstract The vaporization of (SN)x was studied by electron impact and chemical ionization mass spectrometry. Comparison of the spectra with those of S 4 N 4 suggests that vaporization generates an unstable, acyclic S 4 N 4 which subsequently fragments to a cyclic S 3 N 3 + and SN + ion in the mass spectrometer. Mass spectrometry may be used to analyze (SN)x for S 8 and cage S 4 N 4 . Vaporization of TTF-TCNQ produced the component donor and acceptor molecules.

An analysis of petroleum hydrocarbons in the marine environment: Results of an interlaboratory comparison exercise

Abstract An interlaboratory comparison exercise, carried out by Exxon Research and Engineering and the National Bureau of Standards, is described. Marine water samples obtained on a joint cruise using both laboratories’ water samplers were split and analyzed at both laboratories. Both samplers were found to be acceptable for the determination of hydrocarbons at μg/kg (ppb) levels. Differences in analyses were traceable to the analytical schemes employed by each laboratory.

Hydrocarbon burden in the marine environment surrounding a refinery tanker jetty

Abstract In an investigation of petroleum hydrocarbons in the vicinity of a refinery docking facility in a “clean”; environment, water samples taken from the surface and at a 10‐m depth and sediment samples taken from a nearby beach were found to have essentially no contamination, while bottom sediment had a low level hydrocarbon contamination. Of particular interest was the relative abundance of benzo(a)pyrene in the bottom sediment.