VA Honors Quality Achievement Award Winners

WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has selected the Minneapolis VA Medical Center as this year’s recipient of the Robert W. Carey Quality Award – the department’s top honor for quality achievement.

The award recognizes the medical center’s commitment to the veterans it serves, and its focus on improvements in medical care, research, teaching and back-up support for the Department of Defense.  The medical center has won national recognition for its initiatives in medical intensive care unit collaboration and for its Anxiety Interventions Clinic.

“The Minneapolis VA Medical Center is a model for health care, not just in the federal sector, but for practitioners and researchers everywhere.  They are champions of excellence,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Dr. James B. Peake.

A panel of judges, including officials from public and private-sector organizations who are recognized as leaders in customer service and quality, also selected five other VA facilities as top-quality achievers:

• The Bay Pines VA Healthcare System in Florida, which consistently performed in the top five percent of VA health care facilities nationwide;
• The Dallas Fort Worth National Cemetery, which met or exceeded national targets for customer satisfaction in service and cemetery appearance;
• The Louisville VA Medical Center in Kentucky, for living up to its motto, “Organizational Success Stitched with Teamwork;”
• The VA Healthcare Network Upstate New York, which was the VA leader last year in overall performance for clinical quality, access and patient satisfaction; and
• The Washington, D.C., VA Medical Center, lauded for, among others, innovative programs to serve veterans from Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, and joint programs with the Department of Defense.

Other VA facilities receiving special recognition as achievement winners are:

*       The Fayetteville VA Medical Center in Arkansas;
*       The James H. Qullen VA Medical Center in Mountain Home, Tenn.;
*       The South Texas Veterans Health Care System in San Antonio; and
*       VA Southern Oregon Rehabilitation Center and Clinics in White City, Ore.

Recipients of the awards will be honored in a ceremony Oct. 31 in Washington, D.C.

Two previous Carey Award-winning facilities, the Durham VA Medical Center in North Carolina, and the White River Junction VA Medical Center in Vermont, will be honored with a “Circle of Excellence” award during the ceremony.

The Robert W. Carey Quality Award, presented annually since 1992, is named for the director of the VA Regional Office and Insurance Center in Philadelphia who died in 1990.  He led his office in initiating a total-quality management approach to serving veterans and their families.  Today’s Carey Awards follows the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award criteria, which provide a model for assessing quality transformation efforts.