Atlantic City Weekly

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Something very special happened in our area this week. Not a tree lighting or our first glimpse of snowflakes. Not a new restaurant opening or an announcement that Revel’s casino hotel project is expected to be completed early.

What happened was that on Monday, Dec. 7, our region’s very own AtlantiCare was one of five national organizations honored for innovation and performance excellence with the 2009 Baldrige Quality Award. President Barack Obama, along with Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, made the announcement on Monday that Atlantic County-based AtlantiCare was among the recipients of the award, which is “the nation’s highest Presidential honor for innovation and performance excellence,” according to the government’s Web site. About 70 organizations were up for the award.

Reached by phone Wednesday morning, Joan Brennan, the VP for Quality and Performance Excellence for AtlantiCare, said she was “elated” when hearing about the news earlier this week. Everybody in the AtlantiCare family is very excited about the recognition.

Brennan and her team had been working for six years to improve the quality of AtlantiCare’s performance — and it sure paid off.

“We submitted a 50-page application this year again and had a site visit in October,” says Brennan. “[The government officials] interviewed 1,000 employees across [AtlantiCare’s] system, including its two hospital campuses, InfoShare, its surgery center, behavioral health units, and sites in Hammonton.

“They really hit most of the physical sites that we have,” says Brennan, who had to wait a couple extra weeks for the announcement from the White House due to a delay in the process.

“We were anxious,” says Brennan, “it was a hard week.”

Brennan says that for AtlantiCare, the honor means a few things.

“It’s a validation that the quality improvement journey that we’ve been working on for several years [has paid off].”

The achievement also requires recipients to share their award-winning processes and standards with similar organizations across the nation.

“So we will be sharing and learning,” says Brennan. “It’s very exciting for us to have this opportunity to be recognized for doing some good stuff and that our journey will never end. And we’re excited to learn more on how to improve our quality even greater.”

Although Brennan hasn’t been told when members of AtlantiCare will attend a ceremony in Washington DC and possibly meet the president, she expects to find out soon.

“It’s a very proud moment in time for our whole system and the 5,000 people who work here,” says Brennan.

It’s a proud moment for our entire region.

[Full disclosure: This editor’s wife is currently employed by AtlantiCare.]