Tucson -- The Southern Arizona Veterans Affairs Health Care System, or SAVAHCS, received the prestigious 2012 Robert W. Carey Performance Excellence "Trophy Award," the highest level of achievement for this prestigious award, May 16 at the SAVAHCS Tucson complex.
The VA Under Secretary for Health Robert Petzel, M.D., presented the award to SAVAHCS Director Jonathan Gardner.
The Robert W. Carey Awards, presented annually, recognize department organizations that have demonstrated organizational performance excellence in leadership; strategic planning; customer and market focus; measurement, analysis; knowledge management; workforce resource focus; process management; and results.
The Robert W. Carey Award selection committee applies the same criteria as those used for internationally and nationally recognized Malcolm Baldrige Performance Excellence awards, sponsored by the Department of Commerce. This criteria provides a model for organizations to assess their quality transformation efforts, organizational effectiveness, and performance in delivering service and satisfying customers.
SAVAHCS is a Tucson-based community health care provider to more than 177,000 veterans residing in eight counties in southern Arizona and one county in western New Mexico. It also maintains seven community-based outpatient clinics in Safford, Sierra Vista, Green Valley, Casa Grande, Yuma, Northwest and Southeast Tucson. SAVAHCS is also a regional referral center for VA facilities in five surrounding states.
SAVAHCS provides veterans with comprehensive care through primary care; tertiary care; acute care; medicine; physical medicine; rehabilitation; oncology; dentistry; geriatric; women's health; surgery; neurology; traumatic brain injury; mental health; telehealth and other health care initiatives.
In February the medical center also received the Arizona Quality Alliance "AQA" Performance Excellence "Pioneer Award for Quality" which recognized SAVAHCS for establishing and deploying quality systems to attain high levels of performance and service to veteran patients.
Social Sharing