Two Riverside Senior Living facilities have earned national recognition for their commitment to bettering the lives of residents and team members through quality care and continuous performance improvements.
Riverside Lifelong Health & Rehabilitation Smithfield and Sanders in Gloucester each received a 2023 Bronze-Commitment to Quality Award from the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL). Smithfield serves skilled nursing, assisted living and memory care residents; Sanders is a retirement community that offers independent living, assisted living and skilled nursing.
The two facilities are among nine in Virginia — and the only sites in Hampton Roads — to secure the honor this year. The Bronze level is the first in a formal three-step program marked by progressively rigorous criteria.
To qualify, each location completed lengthy applications to assess mission, vision, staffing, equipment and methods for tracking key indicators of success, such as preventing falls, ulcers and urinary tract infections and adhering to safety and hygiene protocols.
“It’s so important to showcase the good work that long-term care centers are doing, because too often they’re seen only in a negative light,” said Stacy Guzik, facility administrator in Smithfield. “Reaching this milestone is definitely something to celebrate.”
“This is a real team accomplishment,” added Nathan Yowell, facility administrator at Sanders. “It has involved an effort by everyone here to treat our residents as if they were our own loved ones and to find ways to do our jobs a little better every day.”
The 2023 National Quality Awards will be presented in early October at the AHCA/NCAL convention in Denver. Both Guzik and Yowell also plan to work toward the next level of recognition, the Silver—Achievement in Quality Award.