Ohio Partnership for Excellence Announces 2008 Award Recipients Columbus, Ohio - The Ohio Partnership for Excellence (OPE) is the State of Ohio Baldrige-based award program. OPE partners with organizations using the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence on their Baldrige journeys. The mission of OPE is to cultivate performance excellence and continuous improvement among business, education, government, healthcare and not-for-profit organizations based in Ohio. By providing a framework for performance excellence through the Baldrige Criteria, organizations have a greater focus on customers, process management, work systems and organization-wide results. These organizations typically see lowered costs, improved productivity and rises in both employee and customer satisfaction. The OPE Board of Trustees is pleased to announce the following 2008 award recipients and recognize their organizational performance. Gold Level - Achievement of Excellence   · Eaton North American Financial Services Center (Brook Park) · Flower Hospital (Sylvania) · Metropolitan Park District of the Toledo Area (Toledo) Silver Level - Commitment to Excellence   · Fostoria Community Hospital (Fostoria) · HealthPark Dentistry (Tipp City) · Kettering Health Network (Kettering) · MedCentral Health System (Mansfield)   Bronze Level - Pledge to Excellence     · United States Geological Survey, Ohio Water Science Center   (Columbus) The Ohio Partnership for Excellence Award Recipients will be honored at OPE's Annual Quest for Success Conference on September 22 and 23, 2008 in Columbus. The Gold Level Recipients will be sharing best practices at the conference. For additional information please visit the OPE Web site at www.partnershipohio.org or contact Elaine Edgar, Executive Director, Ohio Partnership for Excellence, 829 Bethel Road, #212, Columbus, OH 43214 or phone (614) 441-8337. June 6, 2008 To review this press release as a word file, right click here and save "target" or "link" to your desktop.