UNIFY FOR SOMETHING GREATER. HEALTHCARE EXCELLENCE AWAITS.
The UNIVANTS of Healthcare Excellence™ Program goes “GREAT”!
“Many clinical teams are so focused on bettering patient care that they forget what they’re doing is amazing—and worth sharing to make an even bigger impact.”
Those are the words of Melissa Ryan, a former laboratory clinician and now the global scientific marketing manager for brand and digital marketing at Abbott, Core Diagnostics. In an interview with Modern Healthcare Custom Media, she discussed why healthcare teams should seek recognition for their hard work and explained how the UNIVANTS of Healthcare Excellence™ program has gone “GREAT” in 2021, recognizing winning care teams in a big, new way.
What is the UNIVANTS of Healthcare Excellence Award program, and how has it evolved since it launched four years ago?
The UNIVANTS of Healthcare Excellence Awards is an earned honor, assessed by world-renowned healthcare organizations, societies and leaders.
Winning care teams receive not only local recognition but global amplification of their best practices, which enables scientific education and potential replication across the world.
We are proud to have engagement from over 160 countries, with over 100 initiated applications each year. One key area where the program has evolved is its expanded reach and visibility as we have engaged more care teams across the world, in both established and emerging markets. One of the added benefits for the 2021 winners is the newly announced “GREAT” trophy.
Tell us about the UNIVANTS “GREAT” Trophy and its symbolic design.
The “GREAT” Trophy, otherwise known as the “Globally Renowned Atlas” Trophy, is an executive honor that rotates among elite sites with recognition associated with the prestigious UNIVANTS of Healthcare Excellence Award Program. Top performing sites in 2021 will have the privilege of featuring this exclusive trophy within their facility. This trophy will travel from site to site, honoring winning teams.
It is truly a great trophy in both symbolism and design—it is 50 inches tall and weighs close to 100 lbs.! The top portion of the trophy is based on the custom design of individual trophies awarded to the top three winning teams each year. The prestigious gold and silver ribbons reaching upward signify unity. The middle portion features an honorary inscription that promotes the prestige of the award, and the lower portion of the trophy features the winning sites from the past four years. It’s like our Stanley Cup—everyone wants to get their hands on it!
Where has the trophy been thus far and where is it headed next?
While the trophy is new for the 2021 winners, select sites from the 2020 winners already have begun to experience it with positive momentum. It has traveled to Seven Oaks General Hospital in Canada, Dr. Suliman Al Habib Medical Group in Saudi Arabia, Marienhospital in Germany and more recently to Atlanta for the 2021 annual conference of AACC (formerly referred to as the American Association of Clinical Chemistry). The AACC stop was very special, because that’s where we first launched the UNIVANTS program in 2018. We expect it to also travel to Japan and New Zealand before the 2021 winners are announced.
Why should care teams apply for the UNIVANTS of Healthcare Excellence award?
Achieving measurably better healthcare performance is an honor in of itself. The opportunity to educate others enables healthcare to improve around the world. It finally puts a light on conversations that happen behind closed doors between the laboratory and other teams. I’ve spent much of my career in the lab, and I know we don’t often think about recognition. But the truth is, most care teams have already done something innovative within their organization, so why not be recognized and share your best practices across the world?
What more should people know about the 2021 awards?
First things first, the applications are open now! Go visit UnivantsHCE.com and apply before the deadline of November 15th. If applicants apply early, there may be time for administrative feedback to help strengthen submissions. If you have any questions, feel free to email the award administration team at univantsofhealthcareexcellence@abbot.com. We’re here to help and expect GREAT applications this year.