The Quality Improvement of the Year Award

Registration is open until April 6, 2009. 

To enter, please submit the application form, and provide a written summary, not exceeding two pages in length, describing your improvement project (title,description of process involved, and project results) to:

George Mason University
College of Health and Human Services
4400 University Drive, MS 2G7
Robinson Hall B 413G
Fairfax, Virginia  22030
Attn: Marcia Bearor

There is an entry fee of $500 per project. Please make the check payable to “George Mason University College of Health and Human Services.” An invoice will be submitted to your organization once the project has been received.

For further information, contact:

Marcia Bearor
Phone: 703.993.1931
Fax: 703.993.1943
E-mail: mbearor@gmu.edu

The Written Summary

Your summary should include the following elements:

• Incentive for the project. Provide a description of the rationale for the improvement effort. Examples of incentives for previously submitted improvement efforts have included:
  
  • Lack of standardized procedures
  • Reduce the prevalence and/or effects of disease and disability
  • Prevention/reduction of loss of revenue
  • Evidence that performance is below national benchmarks
  • Implementation of National Patient Safety Goals
  • Occurrence of a sentinel event
  • Response to a national initiative (e.g. Save 100,000 Lives Campaign)
  • Correction of identified problematic areas
  • National data indicates need for improvement
• Statement of purpose. What was the project intended to do?
• Procedures.Provide a brief synopsis of the tasks completed toward meeting the purpose of the project.
• Results and impact. What was the outcome of the project?  How did the project impact the organization? The most successful projects are those that not only had an impact in the unit in which is was implemented,but which created positive benefits for the organization as a whole. Please include data on the impact of your project in the any or all of the following key areas:
  
  • Cost savings
  • Increase in market share
  • Improvement in customer satisfaction
  • Improvement in the quality of services provided by the unit/organization
    
    • Increased patient access to services
    • Decreased mortality
    • Decreased morbidity
    • Increased patient health status
    • Improvement in employee work life