AQA Team Showcase Winners Announced by UA

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Alabama Quality Award panel of judges has chosen nine organizations to receive the 2011 Team Showcase awards.

Team Showcase awards are administered by the Alabama Productivity Center, part of The University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration.

The gold level award went to Huntsville Hospital’s Pharmacist Prospective Review of Medication Orders team.

Seven teams were awarded the silver level award: Springhill Memorial Hospital’s Medication Error Committee team, Springhill Memorial Hospital’s Hospital 30-Day Readmissions-Process Improvement team, Springhill Memorial Hospital’s NIMS Reduction 2006-2010 team, Huntsville Hospital’s Antimicrobial Management team, Springhill Memorial Hospital’s Postoperative Blood Sugar Management team, Huntsville Hospital ‘s Development & Improvement of a PainMedication Safety Initiative in a Community Hospital team and Lockheed Martin’s AGMS Robotic Coating Kaizen team.

Springhill Memorial Hospital also had a bronze-level award winner in its Newborn Screenings team.

The Team Showcase annually recognizes teams in the sectors of small business, service, manufacturing, education, healthcare and non-profits.

Team Showcase awards recognize teams for their performance and achievements and their unique approaches to improvement processes. They also encourage other organizations’ teams and serve as a platform to display “Kaizen,” the Japanese term for continuous quality improvement of processes and the use of lean principles within an organization.

The awards will be presented to the teams during the AQA conference and ceremony, to be held at the Bryant Conference Center and the Hotel Capstone in Tuscaloosa Dec.7-9. Each team selected for Team Showcase will make a presentation and have a brief question-and-answer session for other teams and conference attendees.

The AQA is modeled after the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. The AQA recognizes and honors organizations that use effective productivity and quality improvement strategies, techniques or practices which can be shared with other organizations to help contribute to the overall economic well-being in the state of Alabama.

The Alabama Productivity Center is a nonprofit organization established in 1986 by The University of Alabama and Alabama Power Co. The center’s purpose is to use University research and educational resources to stimulate economic development within the state.

For more information on Team Showcase, the Alabama Quality Award, the AQA conference and ceremony or the Alabama Productivity Center, contact Linda Vincent at linda@cba.ua.edu or 205/348-8956.