UW News

September 29, 2005

UW Medical Center wins Quality Award

UW Medical Center was recently honored in a ceremony in Olympia as a recipient of the Washington State Quality Award (WSQA). Gov. Christine Gregoire presented the award to UWMC Executive Director Kathleen Sellick and Preston Simmons, senior associate administrator.

These awards are presented annually at the WSQA Performance Excellence Symposium. Using the nationally recognized Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence, the Washington State Quality Awards named UWMC as one of six winning organizations for its accomplishments in performance excellence.

UWMC was recognized at the Achievement Level. The awards noted that as the only academic medical center in the region, it “offers world-class specialty and primary care services.”

The award judges noted that UWMC “ensures that all employees have the knowledge, skills and competence they need to perform their roles and support its mission and values by giving priority to education, learning and development.”

The judges praised the medical center’s teamwork, and also noted how UWMC builds relationships with its patients and visitors by implementing the UW Medicine nine standards for service excellence and adopting a service recovery program.

The award cited the medical center’s patient satisfaction survey results, showing willingness by patients to recommend UWMC to family or friends, and that overall quality of care and services are nearing and exceeding goals.

WSQA is a nonprofit organization, authorized by the Washington State Legislature, to promote the success of Washington public and private sector organizations through the application of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Criteria.

WSQA has been recognizing high-performing organizations for 11 years. In 2001, multiple levels of the award were established to recognize progress along an organization’s performance improvement path.

The award levels from the highest to the lowest are Excellence Level, Leadership Level, Achievement Level and Certificate of Commitment.

In addition to the award, WSQA offers training and independent progress assessments.