Friday, July 2, 2010 12:07 pm

Woodbury Nursing Center has been recognized as a 2010 recipient of the Bronze – Commitment to Quality National Quality Award presented by the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL), a trade organization with approximately 11,000 members nationwide.

This year 701 nursing homes and assisted living communities from across the nation applied for the Bronze Quality Award and Woodbury Nursing Center was one of over 450 organizations to receive the award. The award will be presented to Woodbury Nursing Center during AHCA/NCAL’s 61st Annual Convention and Exposition, October 10-13, 2010 in Long Beach, CA.

"The commitment to quality designated by this award is a key first step to developing systematic, sustainable, person-centered care and services," stated Bruce Yarwood, President and CEO of AHCA/NCAL. “We congratulate Woodbury Nursing Center on this achievement.”

Implemented by AHCA/NCAL in 1996, the National Quality Award Program is based on the core values and criteria of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Program. It provides a pathway for providers of long term and post-acute care services to journey towards performance excellence.

Facilities begin their quality journey at the Bronze level where they are asked to develop an organizational profile including vision and mission statements, an awareness of their environment and customers’ expectations.

Bronze applicants are also asked to demonstrate their ability to improve a process. At the Bronze level, formerly know as the Step I Award, applications are reviewed by Examiners who have received special training to qualify as judges for the award program.

Woodbury Nursing Center may now move forward in developing approaches and achieving performance levels that meet the criteria required for the Silver - Achievement in Quality award.

The final step in the journey is the Gold – Excellence in Quality award which requires them to address the Baldrige Program’s Health Care Criteria for Performance Excellence in its entirety.

The awards are sponsored by AHCA/NCAL Associate Business Member McKesson Medical-Surgical, a leading distributor of medical supplies and equipment to physician practices, surgery centers, hospitals, home care, and extended care facilities, and My InnerView, a Web-based applied research and quality-management company that supports leaders across the entire assisted living, senior housing and skilled nursing profession with tools to measure, benchmark and improve performance.