In keeping with CQC's mission to promote and enhance quality and continuous improvement, the Council is pleased to announce the implementation of the CQC Quality Award.

Recognition is offered by CQC for any member/organization that has within the last 1 to 3 years made a significant improvement in a key organization process. This recognition is intended to highlight a specific “best practice” used within the organization. The process must be documented, the improvement defined and measurable results clearly charted showing favorable trends. In addition and if applicable, the process should be “benchmarked” or compared with the industry average or a competitor’s best practice.

Members interested in gaining this recognition for their organization will submit applications to CQC following the established criteria . CQC Reviewers will examine the applications according to the award process described below.
Based on their findings, the CQC Reviewers will recommend to the CQC Board of Advisors those organizations that are eligible for recognition and the CQC Board will make final decisions as to the winner(s).  Organizations winning this recognition will be presented a CQC plaque with appropriate wording stating their achievement. A press release will also be offered to statewide news organizations citing the organization's achievement(s). In addition, free CQC training in two, one-day courses over a period of one year will be offered to two individuals from the winning organization(s).

Award Process

The steps in the Award Process are as follows:

1. Application submittal to CQC Board of Advisors.

2. Initial examination by CQC Reviewers.

3. CQC Reviewer site visit to organization(s) that meet basic established criteria.

4. Reviewer detailed examination and scoring of the application and recommendations to CQC Board.

5. CQC Board selection of Award winner.

6. Feedback reports from CQC Reviewers to all applying organizations.

7. Announcement of winner.

8. Winning organization presentation at CQC Event.

9. CQC membership site visit to winning organization. 

Organizations seeking CQC recognition for improvement to one of their key organizational processes will provide information requested by the criteria. Any one organization will be limited to submittal of one application in a year. This information will be submitted to CQC for initial review and approval. Accepted applications will be then be submitted to CQC Reviewers to check for conformance to the requirements of Appendix A and to accepted quality standards. The Reviewers will visit the applicant’s place of business to get a better understanding of the process being presented.

When the Board has selected a winner, that organization will be contacted by CQC to urge them to make a presentation of the award process to the CQC membership at a CQC Event. Presenter(s) should be prepared to conduct a presentation that comprehensively describes the process, quality tools used to develop improvements, deployment of the process changes and resulting improvement(s). If applicable, benchmark comparisons to industry averages, best in class or competition’s performance should be shown. Presenter(s) should be prepared to answer questions from the audience.

It is also recommended that the recognized organization offer a site visit to interested CQC members and others, to view first hand how the process operates.

After the applicant’s presentation and the site visit, the Reviewers will summarize their findings in a Feedback Report, which will be presented to the applicant. CQC will also issue a statewide press release describing the organization’s accomplishments.

Applications that are not selected as winners will also receive a Feedback Report explaining the Reviewers findings and recommendations for improvement.