FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Carol Benner, , 443-562-4275
Advancing Excellence installs new Board Chairs as
more than half of nursing homes sign up for the Campaign.
Today, the Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Homes Collaborative announced that over 51% of all nursing homes in America (more than 8,000) have signed up for the Advancing Excellence Campaign.
In addition, at its January Annual Meeting, the Board of Directors installed new co-chairs for the 2012-2014 term. David Gifford, MD, MPH , senior VP for Quality & Regulatory Affairs at the American Health Care Association and Cheryl Phillips, MD , senior VP for advocacy at LeadingAge.
Cheryl Phillips, MD, co-chair of the Campaign said: “It is an honor to help lead this board and its efforts to improve the lives of the elderly living in American nursing homes.” She added, “The campaign has shown that collaboration between over 30 different organizations representing consumers, providers and government agencies can help improve the quality of care the elderly receive in nursing homes.”
“I am proud to begin to work with the Board to make sure that all nursing home residents receive the highest quality of care” said David Gifford, MD, MPH, other co-chair of the Campaign. He added that “I am particularly excited to work with my friend and colleague, Dr Cheryl Phillips”
Carol Benner, National Director of the Campaign said, “I am delighted to see that over half of all nursing homes have signed up to participate in Advancing Excellence. This will help assure that the Campaign will reach a new level of performance to improve quality of care and life for our nation’s nursing home residents.” She added, “I also want to acknowledge the considerable contribution of our outgoing Board chair, Dr. Mary Jane Koren, Vice President for the Long-Term Care QualityImprovement Program at The Commonwealth Fund. Success to this point could not have occurred without her knowledge and guidance and vision for the Campaign to make nursing homes better places to live, work and visit.”
The Campaign is the largest nationwide, voluntary quality improvement effort in nursing homes. Participating nursing homes choose three of eight goals to work on and set targets for improvement. The Campaign provides a robust website ( with resources to help the nursing home set and achieve their goals. Campaign history shows that nursing homes that register for the campaign and select a goal improve faster than other nursing homes.
The Campaign has had a remarkably successful history. Started in 2006 as a two-year initiative, the Campaign formed a nonprofit corporation in 2010 and plans to continue its national efforts.
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