VA Honors Quality Achievement Award Winners

Washington, D.C. — The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has selected the Denver Distribution Center of Lakewood, Colo., as this year’s recipient of the Robert W. Carey Quality Award — the department’s top honor for quality achievement.

The award recognizes the center’s development of a software package which allows veterans to order prosthetic and audiology devices electronically, permitting a 44 percent gain in productivity over the last five years. The staff at the center is united around a single principle: provide veterans the highest quality service at the lowest possible price.

A panel of judges, including officials from public and private-sector organizations who are recognized as leaders in customer service and quality, also selected three other VA facilities as top quality achievers in three separate categories:

• The Erie, PA., VA Medical Center, for health care
• The St. Paul, MN., VA Regional Office and Insurance Center, for benefits services
• The Florida National Cemetery Complex in Bushnell for cemeteries.

Other VA facilities receiving special recognition as achievement winners are:

• The Jonathan M. Wainwright Memorial VA Medical Center in Walla Walla, WA
• The VA Regional Office in Manchester, NH
• The Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis, Mo.

Recipients of the awards will be honored in a Washington, D.C., ceremony Sept. 23.

The Robert W. Carey Quality Award, presented annually since 1992, is named for the late director of the Philadelphia VA Regional Office and Insurance Center, who died in 1990. Carey led his office in initiating a total-quality management approach to serving veterans and their families. Through the Carey Award and other quality initiatives, VA is continually making improvements in the delivery of services and quality of health care provided to veterans.