Twenty-eight organizations from throughout the state were presented Arkansas Governor’s Quality Awards during the 23rd Annual Awards Celebration for the Governor’s Quality Award Program on Tuesday evening, September 12th at the Marriott Hotel in downtown Little Rock.
More than 300 business and civic leaders from throughout Arkansas attended the celebration.
The Achievement Level Award was presented to North Arkansas Regional Medical Center of Harrison. The award was the highest-level award presented during the event. This is the second consecutive year that the hospital has received this honor.
North Arkansas Regional Medical Center was represented by Vince Leist, president; Deana Thomas, vice president-Financial Services; Linda Melton, vice president-HR; Sammie Cribbs, vice president-Clinical Services; William Bogle, director-Information Systems; Andrea Long, compliance officers; Donna Boehm, director-Nursing; Brenda Hartsell, manager-Quality Service; Dawn Shoemake, nurse manager; and Dawn Brown, nurse manager.
The awards ceremony includes four award levels of Performance Excellence (in descending order of qualifications): the Governor’s Award, the Achievement Award, the Commitment Award and the Challenge Award. As well as the recognition, recipients receive an in-depth evaluation of their management systems and a written feedback report citing strengths and areas for improvement.
The goal of the Governor’s Quality Award Program is to encourage Arkansas organizations to engage in continuous quality improvement, which leads to performance excellence, and to provide significant recognition to those organizations. Created as a not-for-profit organization, the program is dedicated to assist in building a strong infrastructure for Arkansas businesses. That dedication is reflected in the program’s vision to be a catalyst for excellence in organizational performance. The Governor’s Quality Award program partners with the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce.
The Chairman of the Board of the Governor’s Quality Award program is Chris Weiser, president of JV Manufacturing in Springdale. Organizations and companies interested in participating in the program should contact Governor’s Quality Award Executive Director Sue Weatter with the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce by calling 501-372-2222 or go to www.arkansas-quality.org.
