The 2012 Health Care Quality Improvement Awards

Application Criteria

George Mason University’s Department of Health Administration and Policy invites health care organizations to participate in its annual Quality Improvement Awards.  Below are instructions for preparing and submitting applications.

Summary of Application Steps:

1. Download and review Award Application Template.
2. Prepare application following the instructions in the template.
3. Please e-mail or mail the award application to: Valerie Bartush at vbartush@gmu.edu or 4400 University Dr., MS 1J3 Fairfax, VA. 22030.  Your application should be sent as a Microsoft Word document (.doc or .docx extension) or a pdf file.
4. An invoice for the submission fee will be sent to the project team leader upon receipt of the award application.

Application Fees:

• If submitting one or two projects:
  $250 per project
• If submitting three or more projects:
  $250 per project for the first two, $200 per each additional project
  (Example:  2 projects = $500, 3 projects = $700, 4 projects = $900)

Requirements:

• Eligibility: The project must demonstrate improved outcomes (e.g., cost savings, changes in utilization, lives saved, increased revenue, medication error reduction, falls reduction, improved patient/parent satisfaction, etc). Please assign your project to any of the following categories that apply:  
• Clinical Improvement
• Health Systems Risk Improvement
• Service Improvement
• Public Health
• Health Information Technology Adoption/Use
• Senior Housing/Long Term Care Improvement.
• Completeness: Please respond to questions on the application form. 
• Anonymity: The judging committee requests that each organization blind its entries to ensure objective judging. Use language that conceals the identity of your organization (e.g., “Central Hospital”) and remove all logos or graphs, tables, and attachments.
• Formatting: The award application must be formatted as Microsoft Word documents or pdf files. The total application document should be 6-12 pages (excluding template instruction pages), Times New Roman font size 12, and double spaced. Please adhere to the 12 page maximum length.
• Submission Deadline: Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Entries received after the deadline will NOT be accepted for the 2012 Quality Improvement Awards.

Judging Criteria

Blinded entries will be sent to the Quality Improvement Award judges. Entries will be judged on the following criteria:

• Impact on organization. Quality improvement projects should demonstrate meaningful changes which benefit the organization as a whole.
• Creativity. Quality improvement projects should focus on issues that are central to the organization’s functioning, service delivery, and/or quality of services. 
• Institutional Reach. Quality improvement projects should demonstrate that the changes/improvements are generalized to the entire organization. 
• Measurable Documentation of Change. Quality improvement projects should demonstrate quantitative results of the improvement such as percent reduction in mortality/morbidity, percent improvement in patient satisfaction/market share, dollar amount in cost savings, etc.

Awards Ceremony

The awards banquet and presentation will be Thursday, April 26, 2012 beginning at 7:00 pm and will be held at the Fairview Park Marriott, 3111 Fairview Park Drive, Falls Church, VA 22042.  To attend the banquet, please register online by Friday, April 20th.

QUALITY IMPROVEMENT AWARDS are offered for projects that address: Clinical Excellence, Service Excellence, Health Systems Risk Reduction, Public Health, Health Information Technology Adoption/Use, and Senior Housing/Long Term Care Improvement.

Poster Presentation

• ALL teams submitting entries will have an opportunity to showcase their projects with poster presentations during the award ceremony on April 26, 2012.  The poster viewing will take place at 7:00 and will be followed by the banquet and the awards ceremony. 
• The size for the posters should be 36” x 48”. There will be one presentation per board. Your poster may be mounted with Velcro, pushpins, thumbtacks or staples. If you have any questions, please contact Valerie Bartush at vbartush@gmu.edu or (703) 993-1929.