The AHCA/NCAL National Quality Award Program provides a systematic path for long term and post-acute care organizations to progress on their journey towards performance excellence. The program is based on the Core Values and Criteria of the Baldrige Framework for Performance Excellence.
Member centers can apply for three progressive levels of awards:
Silver—Achievement in Quality, or
Each level has its own distinct requirements that provide a progressive path to performance excellence.
Bronze Award
The first step in the National Quality Award Program is the Bronze – Commitment to Quality Award.
The goal of this award level is to provide applicants with the tools and resources they need for continuous performance improvement. Through the Bronze criteria, based on the Organizational Profile section of the Baldrige Health Care Criteria for Performance Excellence, members will assess their organization’s mission, vision, and key factors that lead to success. This will provide a strong foundation for the second step—the Silver – Achievement in Quality Award level.
Silver Award
The second step in the National Quality Award Program is the Silver – Achievement in Quality Award. A requirement of the program is to receive a Bronze – Commitment to Quality Award before applying at the Silver level.
At this level, applicants continue to learn and develop effective approaches that help improve performance and health care outcomes. The Silver guidelines are based on the Baldrige Health Care Criteria for Performance Excellence. In addition to the Organizational Profile, applicants provide a thorough assessment of their systematic approaches and the deployment of these approaches. The Silver program provides a clear pathway for recipients moving to the Gold – Excellence in Quality Award.
Gold Award
The final step in the program is the Gold – Excellence in Quality Award.
Applicants are required to receive Bronze – Commitment to Quality and Silver – Achievement in Quality Awards before applying at the Gold level.
At this level, applicants must show superior performance in areas of the criteria including leadership, strategic planning, and customer and staff satisfaction. Participation in the Gold level allows organizations to take their performance excellence journey to a higher level through their application of the full criteria and the valuable feedback received through the application process. Gold applicants address the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence in Health Care in its entirety.
Adapted from the AHCA/NCAL website
In the years that AHCA/NCAL has administered this award process, there have been many organizations that view it only as an award process, missing the greatest value of the assessment process. Paul Grizzell, President of Core Values Partners and our key AHCA consultant, is a multi-year Judge for the AHCA/NCAL Gold Award. This experience gives him a high degree of competence in understanding the strengths and opportunities for improvement in long-term and post-acute care.
Core Values Partners is able to help leaders in long term and post-acute care organizations focus, align, and accelerate their performance excellence efforts, driving improved results in clinical and non-clinical processes. We’re an AHCA Quality Award consulting company that has years of experience in assisting organizations in using this model to drive performance excellence in this mission-focused industry.
For those unfamiliar with our work, Core Values Partners has consultants, coaches, and trainers that are experts in using multiple models of performance excellence, including both the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence and European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) models. Improving the quality of care requires more than a simple assessment – it’s using the criteria as a systems model to improve the entire organization. No two organizations are exactly the same, even in the same industry, and a performance excellence consultant with experience in long-term care and with the Baldrige Criteria can help ensure evidence-based improvement in organization results.
We make it our business to familiarize ourselves with the strengths and opportunities for improvement of each of our clients, and create strategies that will drive to improved results. The more we know about how your organization operates, the better we can serve the needs that even you didn’t think you had.
What makes Core Values Partners’ AHCA quality award consulting service different from the rest of our industry is that we aim to reinforce an organization’s strengths at the same time that we are addressing their opportunities for improvement.
Effective change takes time and effort. Organizations that have worked with Core Values Partners recognize that we can accelerate the improvement process and focus leader’s efforts on high priorities. We make it a point to focus, align, and accelerate improvement efforts without disrupting existing operations.