WSHA is accepting applications for the Rural Quality Everyday Extraordinary Award, which recognizes a rural hospital completing an exceptional quality improvement project.
The 2024 award will be presented at WSHA & AWPHD Rural Hospital Leadership Conference in Chelan, June 23-26. Applications are due by April 1. This award is given out once a year, and we accept applications year-round.
Successful applications should outline a project addressing a significant problem, employ a data-driven approach, consider the culture of safety in implementing a solution and explain what results were achieved. Additionally, they should ideally be scalable for wider adaptation by other rural hospitals. Last year’s winners were Columbia County Health System for its palliative care program and Ocean Beach Hospital & Medical Clinics for its diabetes program.
Qualified submissions will demonstrate successful implementation of strategies that have produced performance improvement related to patient safety. This may include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Improving access to care for vulnerable patients (e.g. patients who are pregnant, parenting, geriatric; those who have behavior health or substance use disorders)
- Reducing adverse events (e.g. medication errors, falls, pressure ulcers, infections)
- Addressing root causes of near miss, adverse or sentinel events (e.g. communication, workflow, human factor innovation, reconfiguration of space)
- Using multidisciplinary teams to implement new strategies for emerging patient health needs (e.g. sepsis response teams, COVID-19, multi-visit patient readmissions)
- Managing population health across the care continuum (e.g. diabetes, complex case management, COPD)
All rural WSHA member hospitals are invited to participate. Multiple applications from the same organization are accepted.
Please contact Megan Herman (meganh@wsha.org) with any questions. (Megan Herman)
