Hays Nursing lauded for improved care

(AUSTIN) — Hays Nursing and Rehab Center in San Marcos has earned a national honor for improving their quality of care.

The local long term care facility was one of 35 across Texas to earn the honor, despite a statewide staffing crisis that’s left facility managers scrambling to staff shifts.

The American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living awarded the 2018 Bronze – Commitment to Quality award to nursing homes that achieved the first of three distinctions possible through the AHCA/NCAL National Quality Award Program. This program, which began in 1996, honors long term and post-acute care providers across the nation. A total of 521 bronze awards were awarded nationwide.

“Texas should be proud. Despite one of the lowest state reimbursement rates in the nation and a staffing crisis that has managers scrambling to cover shifts every day, Texas nursing homes are making valiant efforts to improve,” said Kevin Warren, president and CEO of the Texas Health Care Association. “Texas brought home more awards than California. We were second only to Florida. This is proof that long term care staff in Texas are worth our investment.”

The AHCA/NCAL National Quality Award Program is centered on the core values and criteria of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, which is the foundation of the metric-based AHCA/NCAL Quality Initiative. The program assists providers of long term and post-acute care services in achieving their performance goals.

The award program has three levels: bronze, silver and gold. Providers begin the quality improvement process at the bronze level, where they develop an organizational profile with fundamental performance elements such as vision and mission statements and key strengths and challenges. Bronze applicants must also demonstrate their ability to implement a performance improvement system. Trained examiners review each application to determine if the center has met the demands of the criteria. AHCA/NCAL will announce the 2018 Silver — Achievement in Quality and Gold — Excellence in Quality award recipients in the coming months. The National Quality Award Program is sponsored by AHCA/NCAL associate business members: First Quality, NRC Health and Team TSI Corporation. Recipient organizations will be honored during AHCA/ NCAL’s 69th Annual Convention and Exposition, Oct. 7-10 in San Diego, Calif.

• Submitted by Texas Health Care Association