Five Long Term and Post-Acute Care Providers Earn Top Distinction in Quality Care

The American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) announced that five long term and post-acute care providers earned the 2019 Gold – Excellence in Quality Award. The Gold award is the final of three distinct levels possible through the AHCA/NCAL National Quality Award Program, which recognizes organizations nationally that serve as models of excellence in providing high-quality care.

This year’s Gold – Excellence in Quality Award recipients are:

• Christian Health Care Center, a skilled nursing and assisted living facility in Wyckoff, New Jersey;
• George E. Wahlen Ogden Veteran’s Home, a skilled nursing center in Ogden, Utah;
• Parker at Stonegate, an assisted living community in Highland Park, New Jersey;
• The Villages Rehabilitation and Nursing, a skilled nursing center in Lady Lake, Florida; and 
• Vista Pacifica Convalescent, a skilled nursing center in Riverside, California.

“The Gold Quality Award is the highest honor a facility can receive that recognizes its quality of care,” said AHCA/NCAL President and CEO Mark Parkinson. “These recipients are role models for our sector, and because of their years of hard work, dedication, and passion, they are improving and will continue to improve lives every day. This recognition is more than well deserved.”

Based on the core values and criteria of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, the AHCA/NCAL National Quality Award Program challenges member providers to achieve performance excellence through three progressive levels—Bronze, Silver, and Gold. The Gold – Excellence in Quality Award is the most prestigious of the program. At this level, recipients have invested multiple years in mastering and applying the rigorous quality improvement standards of the Baldrige Criteria to achieve superior results in leadership, strategic planning, customer and workforce focus, and operations and knowledge management.

“These recipients have shown superior performance in areas of quality, and the amount of time and dedication they have put into this is extraordinary,” said Alana Wolfe, Chair of the AHCA/NCAL National Quality Award Board of Overseers. “They should be extremely proud of reaching this milestone, and we look forward to celebrating their achievements this coming fall.”

Since the inception of the National Quality Award Program in 1996, only 38 long term and post-acute care providers—excluding this year’s recipients—have achieved this level of quality recognition.

A full list of recipients is available on the AHCA/NCAL Quality Award website here.

The 2019 program is sponsored by AHCA/NCAL Associate Business Members: First Quality, NRC Health, Team TSI Corporation, and MatrixCare. Recipient organizations will be honored during AHCA/NCAL’s 70th Convention & Expo​, October 13-16, 2019 in Orlando, Florida.