Thunderous applause filled the room as a Wiregrass community came together Tuesday afternoon to honor a nursing home’s commitment to excellence.

In front of a room filled with civic leaders, business people, nursing home residents and staff along with friends and family, Diversicare officially presented the company’s prestigious 2014 Award of Excellence to Hartford Health Care.

“This award proves our company recognizes the staff’s hard work and what we’ve done to make this center provide the best care for our residents,” Hartford Health Care Administrator Les Hogan told the crowd.

The journey toward the Award of Excellence begins with scoring all of Diversicare’s centers in four key areas: customer satisfaction, workforce satisfaction, health care quality and stewardship. High scoring centers are then able to submit a written application which is based on the Baldridge Quailty Award principles. Those applications are judged to determine the winners. For 2014, only four of Diversicare’s 54 centers were selected for this award.

“Hartford has all the best ingredients,” Diversicare CEO Kelly Gill remarked. “It has an inspired set of leaders. They aspire to greatness and they build it in to all levels. They achieve excellence in small things. The facility has an incredible heart and you can feel that.”

While the award specifically recognizes 2014, Hartford Health Care has a long track record of quality achievement. The center earned the American Health Care Association’s (AHCA) Bronze Quality Award in 2008 and Silver Quality Award in 2009. The AHCA awards are considered the most prestigious honor in the long-term care profession. In addition, Hartford received the Level 1 Alabama Quality Award in 2010, and was named the most outstanding Diversicare center in 2009.

“To have a great nursing home, you have to have great residents, and more importantly, you must have great staff members,” Hogan said. “You need people that will do everything they can to make sure the residents’ needs are met.”

It’s that type of focus and dedication Diversicare hopes to replicate across the company with the goal of being recognized as an industry leader for quality care.

“It’s not just receiving great care, its being inspired that you’re in a place that cares, that is committed and all of that contributes to the healing of the patient,” Gill said.

About Hartford Health Care:

Hartford Health Care is an 86-bed skilled nursing care center providing in-patient and out-patient rehabilitation along with long-term care. The center also specializes in wound care and cardiac rehab. Les Hogan is the Administrator and Eric Goforth is the Director of Nursing. The center employs more than 90 people.