| Demystifying Quality Award Application Results | https://www.ahcancal.org/News-and-Communications/Blog/Pages/Demystifying-Quality-Award-Application-Results-.aspx | Demystifying Quality Award Application Results | | | | | 10/6/2026 4:00:00 AM | | <p></p><div>Preparing the Results section of a Silver or Gold Quality Award application can feel complex. How results are selected, presented, and connected to organizational performance can have a significant impact on an application’s score. </div><div><br></div><div><span style="font-size:11pt;">Join us for </span><em style="font-size:11pt;">Demystifying Quality Award Application Results</em><span style="font-size:11pt;"> on </span><strong style="font-size:11pt;">October 27 at 2pm EST. </strong><span style="font-size:11pt;">This webinar is designed to help applicants better understand the Results section and avoid common issues that may affect </span><span style="font-size:11pt;">scoring. This session w</span><span style="font-size:11pt;">ill provide an overview of key Results concepts and practical guidance for presenting complete, clear, and meaningful information. </span></div><div><br></div><div><strong style="font-size:11pt;">What You’ll Learn</strong></div><div><br></div><div><span style="font-size:11pt;">Participants will: </span></div><div><ul><li><span style="font-size:11pt;">Understand why the presentation and completeness of Results are critical to Quality Award application scoring. </span></li><li><span style="font-size:11pt;">Identify common issues that negatively affect Results scores. </span></li><li><span style="font-size:11pt;">Learn which Results subcategories most frequently present challenges for applicants. </span></li><li><span style="font-size:11pt;">Gain a general understanding of Results scoring elements and key terminology. </span></li><li><span style="font-size:11pt;">Recognize presentation issues that may make Results difficult for examiners to evaluate. </span></li></ul></div><div><span style="font-size:11pt;">Whether your organization is preparing a Silver or Gold application, this webinar will help your team approach the Results section with greater clarity and confidence. </span></div><div><br></div><div style="text-align:center;"><span class="ms-rteStyle-BlueButton" style="font-size:11pt;"><a href="https://educate.ahcancal.org/products/demystifying-quality-award-application-results" data-feathr-click-track="true" data-feathr-link-aids="60b7cbf17788425491b2d083" target="_blank">Register Today</a></span></div><div><br></div><div><span style="font-size:11pt;">And don't miss the Quality Award Intent to Apply deadline! Organizations planning to participate in the Quality Award Program are encouraged to submit their <strong>Intent to Appl</strong><strong>y (ITA)</strong> as this step offers several benefits including reduced application fee, access to exclusive Program resources, and early engagement with the application process. </span></div><div><br></div><div><span style="font-size:11pt;"><a href="https://ahcancal.smartsimple.com/s_Login.jsp" data-feathr-click-track="true" data-feathr-link-aids="60b7cbf17788425491b2d083" target="_blank"><strong>Submit your ITA</strong></a><strong> by November 12 at 8pm EST!</strong></span></div><p></p> | Preparing the Results section of a Silver or Gold Quality Award application can feel complex. | |
| My Quality Award Journey with NHC Maryland Heights | https://www.ahcancal.org/News-and-Communications/Blog/Pages/My-Quality-Award-Journey-with-NHC-Maryland-Heights.aspx | My Quality Award Journey with NHC Maryland Heights | | | | | 9/14/2026 4:00:00 AM | | <p></p><p><strong>Susan Taylor serves as Administrator at NHC Maryland Heights, which proudly achieved the 2025 Gold Quality Award.</strong></p><p><strong><br></strong></p><p><strong>The Quality Journey from Start to Now</strong></p><p>As a recipient of the Gold Quality Award, Susan reflects on her center's journey from Bronze to Gold: “Our Quality Award journey has been one of growth, learning, and perseverance. Prior to COVID-19, we earned the Bronze Award twice and even began working on a Silver application. However, we recognized that our center was not quite ready to take that next step. Following the pandemic, our leadership team made a commitment to rebuild stronger than ever. We focused on strengthening our systems, improving communication, and ensuring that our mission, vision, and values were truly embedded in everything we do."</p><p>“That commitment led us to apply for the Bronze Award in 2023, the Silver Award in 2024, and the Gold Award in 2025. We were honored to achieve each award the year we applied. This accomplishment was not the work of one individual. It was a true team effort. Every partner in our center played a role in creating a culture of excellence, accountability, and continuous improvement."</p><p> </p><p><strong>Valuing People</strong></p><p>At NHC Maryland Heights, Susan and her team believe their people are their greatest strength: “That commitment begins during the hiring process. We take time to personally tour applicants through our center so they can experience our culture firsthand. New partners then participate in a structured two-day orientation that includes meeting senior leaders, reviewing policies and procedures, and learning the importance of our mission, vision, and values. We continuously seek feedback through Great Place to Work partner surveys and use that feedback to drive meaningful improvements. Communication is also a top priority. We have daily stand-up meetings and monthly all-staff meetings on every shift to ensure that all partners stay informed, engaged, and connected to our goals. As a result, we have built a strong culture of engagement and achieved excellent retention rates."</p><p> </p><p><strong>Customer-Focused Excellence</strong></p><p>Residents and families are at the heart of every decision at NHC Maryland Heights: “Senior leaders conduct purposeful rounds during meal service to listen directly to residents and learn about their experiences. We also created an Ambassador Club to enhance dining services and better understand resident preferences. And targeted departmental rounding allows us to address concerns proactively, while Activated Insights surveys provide valuable feedback from residents and families at admission, annually, and upon discharge. We know that listening, responding, and improving based on customer feedback helps us provide exceptional care and service every day."</p><p> </p><p><strong>Innovation</strong></p><p>NHC Maryland Heights embraces innovation through its CAPS Program, which focuses on Children, Animals, Plants, and Spirituality: “Through CAPS, we create opportunities that promote connection, purpose, and joy for residents. Whether through interaction with children, caring for plants, engaging with animals, or nurturing spiritual well-being, we strive to enhance each resident's quality of life in a personalized and meaningful way. We have a pony, chickens, goats, and birds that live on our property. We encourage families and visitors to bring in their home cats and dogs for visits. We also have a growing resident and partner garden that offers fresh vegetables and flowers."</p><p> </p><p><strong>Societal Contribution</strong></p><p>Giving back to the community is an important part of NHC Maryland Heights' work: “Our center actively supports the Alzheimer's Association, VOYCE, local nursing programs, and numerous workforce development initiatives. We offer CNA classes, support CNA mentors through labor grant programs, and create employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities. We participate in GWEP projects focused on the 4Ms Framework and what matters to our residents. The center supports the Foundation for Geriatric Education. We also host Kids Camp programs throughout the year, creating meaningful intergenerational experiences for both residents and children, helping the next generation grow compassion for seniors. Our residents are community contributors as well, participating in projects that support local food pantries and other charitable causes throughout the area."</p><p> </p><p><strong>The Impact of the Quality Award Journey</strong></p><p>The Quality Award journey has helped NHC Maryland Heights sharpen its focus and strengthen its approach to continuous improvement: “The Quality Award journey helped us sharpen our focus on what matters most. We increased emphasis on ensuring every partner understands and lives our mission, vision, and values. The process also strengthened our strategic planning efforts, improved our SWOT analysis process, and challenged us to evaluate our systems more critically. As a result, we have become more intentional, more data-driven, and more focused on continuous improvement. Most importantly, the journey has helped us deliver an even higher level of care and service for our residents and families."</p><p> </p><p><strong>What the Gold Quality Award Means</strong></p><p>For Susan, achieving the Gold Quality Award represents both recognition and validation: “Achieving the Gold Quality Award is both an honor and a validation of the work our team does every day. The award recognizes the dedication of our partners and demonstrates what can be accomplished when an organization moves beyond compliance and strives for excellence. It provides an opportunity to showcase our commitment to quality and inspire others to pursue systematic approaches that improve outcomes for residents, families, and staff."<br></p><p><br></p><p><strong>Looking Forward</strong></p><p>Looking ahead, Susan hopes to continue mentoring others and celebrating the positive stories that happen every day in long term care: “I hope to continue mentoring others on their quality journeys and helping organizations understand that meaningful change often begins with small, consistent steps. I also want to continue highlighting the positive stories that happen every day in long term care. There are incredible moments shared between residents, families, and caregivers, and those stories deserve to be celebrated. Most importantly, I want to continue demonstrating the excellence, compassion, and impact that long term care professionals bring to our communities and our country."<br><br></p><p><strong>Final Advice</strong></p><p>After achieving Gold in the Quality Award journey, Susan shared advice for organizations beginning their own journey: “Start where you are and don't be afraid to take the first step. Success doesn't happen overnight. Build strong processes, measure your progress, celebrate your wins, and learn from your setbacks. Most importantly, ensure your entire interdisciplinary team understands and supports the journey.</p><p>“Use Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement as more than a compliance requirement. Make it a tool for growth, learning, and excellence. And remember to have fun along the way. Long term care is challenging work, but it is also incredibly rewarding. The Quality Award process is a chance to showcase who you are, what you do, and how you make a difference every day while staying true to your mission, vision, and values.</p><p>“Don't settle for simply getting by. Get excited about being excellent. That's where transformation happens. Do not forget that your Leadership equals Results, so go out and get the results you want. The way that we lead is everything is patient focused. The patient is put first then the investors and the partners all have the same alignment to be focused on the patient we get the desired outcomes."<br></p> | | |
| My Quality Award Journey with Heritage Woods of Yorkville | https://www.ahcancal.org/News-and-Communications/Blog/Pages/My-Quality-Award-Journey-with-Heritage-Woods-of-Yorkville.aspx | My Quality Award Journey with Heritage Woods of Yorkville | | | | | 9/14/2026 4:00:00 AM | | <strong>Bobbie Vavra serves as Executive Director at Heritage Woods of Yorkville, which proudly achieved the Silver Quality Award.</strong><br><br><strong>The Quality Journey from Start to Now</strong><br><br>As a recipient of the Silver Quality Award, Bobbie reflects on her community's journey and the role culture, staff development, and data played in its success: “Our Quality Award journey started with a strong belief in the culture we had already built within our community. From the beginning, I knew that staff development had to be at the center of our journey and that we needed to connect that development back to our mission and values in everything we did. I truly believe that when we take care of our staff, our staff will take care of our residents and caring for our residents is the very reason each of us shows up every day.<br><br>“That philosophy became the foundation for how we approached quality improvement, staff engagement, and ultimately our Quality Award journey. One of the most valuable parts of the journey was learning to use our data more intentionally. The Trend Tracker information was particularly helpful because it put meaningful information right at our fingertips. In fact, I started with the charts before I even began writing our narrative. The data helped me identify where we were strongest, where we had opportunities for improvement, and which areas best reflected the story of our community.<br><br>“Our achievement today is a reflection of both the culture we have worked hard to create and our willingness to continually look at the data, learn from it, and use it to become better. For me, the Quality Award journey was not simply about receiving an award. It was about validating the work our team does every day to support our staff, strengthen our community, and ultimately provide the best possible experience for our residents."<br><br><strong>Valuing People</strong><br><br>At Heritage Woods of Yorkville, Bobbie's approach to valuing people begins with staff development and strong community relationships: “Our focus on valuing people, customer-focused excellence, innovation, and societal contribution really grew out of the challenges we experienced coming out of COVID, particularly the impact it had on staffing. Rather than relying on traditional recruiting methods, we looked for opportunities to connect with our local CNA schools and build relationships within our community."<br><br><strong>Innovation</strong><br><br>Heritage Woods of Yorkville showed its innovation when a local CNA program needed a new clinical partner: “That outreach we did to connect to local CNA programs led to a relationship with a CNA instructor who was facing a difficult situation. The clinical sites she had been using were no longer aligning with the school's mission and were not in good standing with the state. Instead of seeing that as someone else's problem, we saw an opportunity to create a solution that benefited both organizations. We opened our doors and became a clinical site for the CNA program, something that was relatively unheard of in our industry. But it filled an important need for the school while creating an incredible opportunity for our community."<br><br><strong>Customer-Focused Excellence</strong><br><br>Bobbie and her team use those partnerships to model resident-centered caregiving for future caregivers: “For us, it meant getting in front of young, impressionable students and showing them what caregiving is truly about before they had the opportunity to develop misconceptions about the profession. We could demonstrate firsthand the importance of compassion, dignity, teamwork, and treating every resident as an individual."<br><br><strong>Societal Contribution</strong><br><br>That partnership with the local program helped contribute to the local community by helping develop the next generation of caregivers: “For the school, it provided a reputable clinical partner that allowed students to continue progressing through their curriculum with confidence that they were receiving meaningful, quality clinical experience. What started as a staffing challenge ultimately became something much bigger: a partnership that helped develop the next generation of caregivers while strengthening our own workforce and our connection to the community. To me, that is innovation and contribution: seeing a challenge, looking at it differently, and creating a solution that makes everyone better."<br><br><strong>The Impact of the Quality Award Journey</strong><br><br>The Quality Award journey has made Heritage Woods of Yorkville more intentional and data-driven while helping the team see the impact of its daily work: “Engaging with the Quality Awards Program has brought both insight and momentum to our daily intentions. It has helped us be more intentional about looking at what we do, understanding the impact of our efforts, and using data to guide our decisions rather than simply relying on what we think is working. Most importantly, it has helped turn our everyday commitment to quality into a more purposeful and measurable journey. It has given our team a clearer understanding that the small things we do each day truly add up to meaningful outcomes for our residents."<br><br>“My favorite part of the process was sharing the outcome with my staff. I brought the team together, shared our narrative, walked through our results, and reminded them that they should be proud of the work they do every day. I focus a lot on our mission and values because that is our common ground, it is what brings each of us together and reminds us why we get out of bed every day. Seeing our results on paper was a powerful reminder that what we do matters. These results show that we are succeeding in our mission to enrich the lives of our residents through Love, Compassion, and Dignity. The award is recognition of the team, but the real achievement is knowing that the work they do every day is making a difference."<br><br><strong>What the Silver Quality Award Means</strong><br><br>For Bobbie, the Silver Quality Award is an opportunity to celebrate the team's everyday commitment to caring for others: “The Quality Awards Program and the recognition we achieved mean so much to me because they provide an opportunity to celebrate something our team does every day: care for others.<br><br>“I think many health care workers shy away from praise or talking about their accomplishments because caring for others comes so naturally to us. We often don't see what we do as something to boast about; we simply see it as doing our job and doing what is right for our residents. I have always told my team, 'Take credit for the work you do.' Every interaction, every small act of kindness, every extra effort, and every decision made with our residents in mind truly does make a difference. Those small things add up to the quality of life and care we provide every day.<br><br>“Receiving this recognition has given us an opportunity to pause and recognize the incredible work our team is doing. For me, the greatest value of the award isn't simply the recognition itself, it is being able to remind my team just how great they really are and to encourage them to be proud of the difference they make every single day."<br><br><strong>Looking Forward</strong><br><br>Looking ahead, Bobbie hopes to use the Quality Awards Program to elevate the work of health care professionals and inspire future caregivers: “Looking forward, I hope to continue using the Quality Awards Program as a way to highlight the importance and value of the work we do in health care. So much incredible work happens in health care every day that often goes unnoticed. I hope to use this platform to highlight that work, encourage health care workers to be proud of what they do, and show others how meaningful caregiving can be. Most importantly, I hope we can encourage more young people to consider a career in health care. If we can show them the purpose, relationships, and difference they can make, we may inspire the next generation of caregivers while helping address the staffing challenges our industry continues to face."<br><br><strong>Final Advice</strong><br><br>After achieving Silver in the Quality Award journey, Bobbie shared simple advice for organizations beginning their own journey: “My advice is simple: just start. Get something down on paper even if it is just a rough draft. The most important thing is to get the momentum going. Start by really knowing your community and its culture. From there, begin gathering your results and identifying the story your data is telling you. Once you have that foundation, you can begin putting everything together with intention and purpose. Don't worry about making it perfect from the beginning. Start with what you know, build from there, and let the process tell your story."<br> | | |
| New to the Quality Award Journey? Here's How to Start! | https://www.ahcancal.org/News-and-Communications/Blog/Pages/New-to-the-Quality-Award-Journey-Here's-How-to-Start!-.aspx | New to the Quality Award Journey? Here's How to Start! | | | | | 9/1/2026 4:00:00 AM | | <p></p><div>Considering applying for the 2027 Quality Award Program for the first time? Congratulations—you're about to embark on a meaningful journey of organizational learning and improvement! To help you get started, here are two key steps to set yourself up for success. </div><div><strong style="font-size:11pt;"><br></strong></div><div><span style="font-size:11pt;"><strong>1. </strong></span><span style="font-size:11pt;"><strong>Join the First-Time Applicant Hour </strong></span></div><div><span style="font-size:11pt;">Begin your application journey with confidence by attending the First-Time Applicant Hour—an introductory webinar designed specifically for new applicants. </span></div><div><span style="font-size:11pt;">In this session, you will: </span></div><div><ul><li><span style="font-size:11pt;">Discover the structure and purpose of the Quality Award Program. </span></li><li><span style="font-size:11pt;">Learn how participating can help you reflect on and improve your organization’s processes. </span></li><li><span style="font-size:11pt;">Explore the key steps to begin your journey with clarity and confidence. </span></li><li><span style="font-size:11pt;">Engage in a live Q&A with program staff to get your questions answered directly. </span></li></ul></div><div><span style="font-size:11pt;"><strong>Date:</strong> September 10, 2026 </span></div><div><strong>Time: </strong>3PM EST </div><div><a href="https://educate.ahcancal.org/products/first-time-applicant-hour-intro-to-the-quality-award-journey-2#tab-product_tab_overview" data-feathr-click-track="true" data-feathr-link-aids="60b7cbf17788425491b2d083" target="_blank"><strong>Register today! </strong></a></div><div><br></div><div><span style="font-size:11pt;"><strong>2. Submit Your Intent to Apply </strong></span></div><div><span style="font-size:11pt;">Show your commitment to quality by submitting an Intent to Apply (ITA) for the 2027 Quality Award. This step offers several benefits including: </span></div><div><ul><li><span style="font-size:11pt;">Reduced application fee </span></li><li><span style="font-size:11pt;">Access to exclusive Program resources </span></li><li><span style="font-size:11pt;">Early engagement with the application process </span></li></ul></div><div><br></div><div><span style="font-size:11pt;">Submit your ITA through the Quality Award Portal. For assistance submitting your ITA in the Quality Award Portal, be sure to visit the <a href="/Quality/National-Quality-Award-Program/Pages/Help-Documents.aspx" data-feathr-click-track="true" data-feathr-link-aids="60b7cbf17788425491b2d083" target="_blank">Quality Award Portal Resource Center</a> for helpful resources like a step-by-step <a href="/Quality/National-Quality-Award-Program/Documents/Portal%20Help/Submitting%20a%20Payment.pdf" data-feathr-click-track="true" data-feathr-link-aids="60b7cbf17788425491b2d083" target="_blank">How to Submit an ITA</a> guide. </span></div><div><br></div><div><span style="font-size:11pt;"><strong>Deadline: </strong>November 12, 2026 </span></div><div><strong>Time:</strong> 8PM ET <br></div><div><a href="https://ahcancal.smartsimple.com/s_Login.jsp" data-feathr-click-track="true" data-feathr-link-aids="60b7cbf17788425491b2d083" target="_blank"><strong>Visit the Portal today! </strong></a> <br></div><p></p> | Considering applying for the 2027 Quality Award Program for the first time? | |