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The National Quality Healthcare Award was created in 1993 by the National Committee for Quality Health Care as the first award of its kind to recognize outstanding quality-driven healthcare organizations. For 14 years, the award has provided encouragement for improvements in quality through public recognition of organizations' accomplishments.
The first award went to The Henry Ford Health System (Detroit) in 1994 "…for success integrating quality values through its organization and community." Subsequent award recipients include prominent organizations such as Intermountain Healthcare (1996), Brigham and Women's Hospital (2006), Northwestern Memorial Hospital (2005) and St. Luke's Hospital of Kansas City (1997), which went on to receive one of the first Baldrige Awards in healthcare in 2003. (Click here for complete list of prior Award winners.)
The Award moved to the National Quality Forum (NQF), as a result of the 2006 merger with the National Committee for Quality Health Care, and has been reshaped to better align with NQF's mission to dramatically improve quality of care through evidence-based, measurement-driven performance improvement and public reporting. (Click here for information on a Blue Ribbon Panel and experts who provided input to revise the award.)
Coming under NQF's umbrella gives the Award new opportunities for national visibility and impact. NQF is viewed as one of the leading organizations helping to chart the course for quality improvement nationally. Working collaboratively with public and private sectors, NQF has endorsed over 300 performance measures and other consensus standards, indicators and practices that assess quality across the continuum of care.
Through the National Quality Healthcare Award, NQF identifies organizations that are role models for achieving meaningful, sustainable quality improvement through performance measurement and demonstrated commitment to public reporting.
The National Quality Healthcare Award is selected through a "blinded" review by a panel of jurors, using a uniform set of scoring criteria.