Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association Earns Prestigious SPQA Progress in Performance Excellence Award

November 19, 2020

Senate Productivity and Quality Award Program Assists Organizations Committed to Improvement; Evaluation Process Involves Detailed Application Submission Process and Staff Interviews to Determine Areas of Success and Improvement Opportunities

 RICHMOND, VA – The Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association (VHHA) this week formally received the 2020 Senate Productivity and Quality Award (SPQA) Progress in Performance Excellence Award that signifies organizational achievement in optimizing professional and ethical practices. The Association received notification that it had qualified for the award earlier this year.

“The focus of the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association is collaboratively working with member hospitals and health systems, elected officials, stakeholders, and the public to achieve excellence in health care and health in pursuit of making Virginia the healthiest state in the nation” said VHHA President and CEO Sean T. Connaughton. “This commitment to excellence in health care quality, safety, service, and value also extends to organizational stewardship and excellence. Just as the Association is focused on enhancing the health care delivery system alongside our members, our team is also dedicated to being a first-rate organization that strives for consistent improvement.”

Under the leadership of its Board of Directors, the Association has pursued the Malcom Baldrige National Quality Award. The news that VHHA has earned SPQA recognition marks an important step toward that goal, which is an organizational objective in the Association’s strategic plan. In late 2018 and early 2019, VHHA completed the SPQA Self-Evaluation process, and submitted its first full application for an SPQA award earlier this year.

The SPQA Program assesses an organization’s performance in utilizing the Baldrige Performance Excellence Framework (BPEF), which examines how an organization delivers its mission across several categories including governance and societal responsibility, strategy development and implementation, customer expectations and engagement, knowledge management, the workforce, key processes, and results. Applicants are scored across these categories based on how their activities compare to the BPEF.

Receipt of this award is an important step in VHHA’s ongoing Baldrige work and recognizes its progress on performance improvement. The Progress Award is the second level of award recognized by SPQA, meaning VHHA has bypassed a step in the process as a result of the organization-wide commitment to implement new processes and programs that help drive and support the Association’s member-focused advocacy, quality and safety efforts, and other programs and services.

About VHHA: The Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association is an alliance of 110 hospitals and 26 health delivery systems that develops and advocates for sound health care policy in the Commonwealth. Its mission is to achieve excellence in both health care and health. Its vision is through the power of collaboration to be recognized as a driving force behind making Virginia the healthiest state in the nation. Connect with VHHA through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Julian Walker
Vice President of Communications
(804) 297-3193 office
(804) 304-7402 mobile
jtwalker@vhha.com