BENTON – Saline Memorial Hospital (SMH) was recently recognized for the third year in a row for performance excellence at the 15th annual Awards Celebration for the Governor’s Quality Award Program at the DoubleTree Hotel in Little Rock. More than 275 business and civic leaders from throughout Arkansas attended the celebration.[more]
“We are excited to be one of a small number of hospitals to be recognized for the third consecutive year,” said Randy Fortner, SMH President and CEO. “Patients at SMH are receiving quality care like never before. Achieving such excellent clinical and patient satisfaction results can be attributed to the talented team of physicians and other professionals involved in developing and providing services daily.”
The awards ceremony includes four award levels of Performance Excellence (in descending order of qualifications): the Governor’s Award, the Achievement Award, the Commitment Award, and the Challenge Award. As well as the recognition, recipients receive an in-depth evaluation of their management systems and a written feedback report citing strengths and areas for improvement. Industry-specific seminars were held last year for manufacturing, healthcare and insurance/financial services.
SMH received the Commitment Award which is designed for organizations that have progressed to a point of demonstrating serious commitment to the use of quality principles to attain performance excellence. Application in this level requires a profile of organizational operations addressing elements of the seven categories listed above. Responses were assessed considering the maturity of the applicant’s approaches, breadth of deployment and strength of the improvement process and results.
The Governor’s Quality Award program uses the same application criteria, as does the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award program. These criteria cover seven areas of doing business: 1) Leadership; 2) Strategic Planning; 3) Customer and Market Focus; 4) Measurement, Analysis and Knowledge Management; 5) Human Resource Focus; 6) Process Management; and 7) Results.
“As leaders of Saline Memorial, we remain committed to planning for its future and ensuring the quality of healthcare provided in this community continues to rank among the best,” said Fortner.
The goal of the Governor’s Quality Award Program is to encourage Arkansas organizations to engage in continuous quality improvement, which leads to performance excellence, and to provide significant recognition to those organizations. Created as a not-for-profit organization, the program is dedicated to assist in building a strong infrastructure for Arkansas businesses. That dedication is reflected in the program’s vision to contribute to the success of Arkansas organizations and the communities they serve. The Governor’s Quality Award program partners with the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce.
