Despite sharp declines in the number of submissions to AmeriCare’s Hospital Quality Improvement Award, the VP of Quality for AmeriCare, Ian Davidson, edged out two competitors to claim his sixth consecutive award for the quality department’s project titled, “The Effect of Actually Having Caring Nurses on Therapeutic Painting Scores Among Mental Health Patients.”

In his acceptance speech at the annual award banquet, Mr. Davidson thanked the audience for attending, even though many were unaware that AmeriCare still had a quality award. He reminded them that the decline in project submissions had little to do with a waning interest in the program, but was the result of the quality department’s higher standards of rigor in the project application process over the last few years.

In an interview later that evening, Mr. Davidson expressed his jubilation in winning the award, stating “my dedicated staff of 23 Six Sigma Black Belts were shocked when we heard the name of our project called.” He added “we will cherish this award all year, until next year’s banquet, and if we don’t have the banquet next year, then cherish it forever.”