Unity Health recently announced that it has received the prestigious Governor’s Quality Award. The honor was given to hospital representatives at the recent Governor’s Quality Award banquet, in which Gov. Asa Hutchinson recognized Unity Health with the award.

“We know that the future of healthcare rests in our ability to provide superior care for our patients,” said Unity Health President/CEO Steven Webb.

The Arkansas Governor’s Quality Award is the highest level of recognition presented to state organizations that have demonstrated the highest level of performance excellence through their practices and achievements.

“It is an enormous honor to accept this award and we are so humbled to be the only hospital or any organization that has won this honor three times,” said Vice President of Patient Services LaDonna Johnston. “We hope this truly paints a picture of our long-term commitment to utilizing this process and our recognition of the processes value to our organization and to our customers. It is the quest for excellence that we all strive for in healthcare.”

“The Governor’s Quality Award allows organizations like ours to look at various areas of our hospital, from a leadership and strategic planning perspective, as well as human resources and processes in order to measure our overall results,” Johnston said. “It is a transparent and objective way of looking at our level of achievement and how we arrived here, much like a road map guides your journey to a specific destination; we want to continue on this route to achieve even higher levels of success in providing quality patient care and creating a healthy community.”

Unity Health is the only organization in Arkansas to receive the Governor’s Quality Award three times; the hospital also received the prestigious Governor’s Quality Award in 2002 and 2012.

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. The Governor’s Quality Award was founded by Arkansas business leaders who understood the need to recognize companies reaching for the highest standards in their products, services and processes and who understood the need for organizations to have the tools and training to improve and to strive for performance excellence. The Governor’s Quality Award Program, a private non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation, was established in 1994 for the purpose of supporting the broad based use of quality principles throughout Arkansas to drive performance  improvement.

As the leading healthcare provider in an eight-county area, Unity Health and its associates strive to improve the quality of health and well-being for the communities it serves through compassionate care. Unity Health is the largest employer in an eight-county area with more than 2,000 associates. The Searcy facility has a combined total of 438 licensed beds and a medical staff of 150 physicians that specialize in various areas of healthcare.

In addition to the White County Medical Center and Specialty Care Campuses, Unity Health in Searcy includes Unity Health – Clarity Health and Wellness, Unity Health – Family Practice Associates, Unity Health – After Hours Clinic, Unity Health – Orthopaedic and Spine Center, Unity Health – Searcy Medical Center and Unity Health – Searcy Medical Center, West, Unity Health – Westside Family Medical Clinic, Unity Health Cardiology Clinic and Unity Health Oncology Clinic.

Representatives from Unity Health accepted the prestigious Governor’s Quality Award. The honor was given to hospital representatives at the recent Governor’s Quality Award banquet, in which Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson recognized Unity Health with the award. Unity Health is the only organization to have ever received the honor three times.