Good Samaritan Society-Waukon receives Bronze Award from American Health Care Association

Good Samaritan Society-Waukon has been recognized as a 2012 recipient of the Bronze Commitment to Quality Award for its dedication to improving quality care. The award, presented by the American Health Care Association (AHCA), honors facilities across the nation that have demonstrated their commitment to the quality improvement journey.
“Each one of the award recipients has proven its dedication to improving lives through quality care, and it is a privilege to honor them with this year’s award,” said Governor Mark Parkinson, President and CEO of AHCA. “We congratulate Good Samaritan Society – Waukon on this achievement.”
The Quality Award program has three progressive step levels. Applicants are judged by trained examiners who provide feedback on improvement to support continuous learning. Facilities must achieve an award at each level (Bronze, Silver and Gold) to progress to the next level.
Bronze applicants must demonstrate their ability to implement a performance improvement system. Good Samaritan Society – Waukon’s dietary department chose to look at the area of undesired resident weight loss. Gathering information from residents and families, they discovered that residents wanted to have more options when dining.
The dietary department started to create menus with food options available, as well as a “core group” of choices that were available every day. The kitchen served over 100 egg sandwiches upon request in the first week. Although the score for Resident with a Weight Loss was already well below the acceptable rate, at the end of five months, this score was reduced to just a fourth of its previous amount.
“The Bronze Award is an honor because it recognizes staff that are working hard to improve the quality of our care each day,” says Good Samaritan Society - Waukon Administrator Jim Sewick. “Our dietary department is to be commended for their willingness to look at an area that was already exceeding standards and make it even better.”
Good Samaritan Society – Waukon was one of five Iowa facilities to receive the Bronze level award. The award will be presented to the center during AHCA’s Annual Convention in October in Tampa, FL.