Written by The Veterans Affairs Cooperative Studies Program (VACSP) Clinical Research Pharmacy Coordinating Center (the Center) is a federal government organization that supports multicenter clinical trials targeting current health issues for America’s veterans.
While the Center focuses its efforts on improving the health of U.S. veterans, it also strives to be a leader and innovator in the broader community of organizations conducting pharmaceutical clinical trials worldwide.
The Center has five core values—leadership, customer service, safety, teamwork, and continuous learning—that support goals and help yield outstanding performance results, including the following examples:
- The Center’s financial results demonstrate its success and sustainability; its revenues grew 143 percent from 2002 to 2008, compared to 58 percent for the VA over the same period.
- The Center’s 2008 productivity of $221,000 in revenue per full-time employee compares favorably to eight top competitors, with the highest competitor’s performance at approximately $195,000.
- 75 percent of the Center’s customer relationships exceed 10 years. The majority of extramural (federal and industry) funding is from repeat business, achieving its highest level of $11 million in 2008.
- Since 2001, zero quality defects in the Center’s pharmaceuticals have been reported by customers for all but one of those years.
Such success stems from an agile, learning organization that supports sustainability through several team approaches: a fully deployed matrix-management system, an interlocking committee governance structure, and cross-functional strategic planning teams.
Read the entire article at https://www.nist.gov/baldrige/department-veterans-affairs-cooperative-studies-program-clinical-research-pharmacy