AzHHA Quality Awards
The annual AzHHA Quality Awards celebrate and recognize Arizona’s leaders committed to advancing healthcare through exceptional quality performance, community engagement and a culture of continuous improvement.
Awards are given out for Top Overall Excellence, Outstanding Patient/Community Impact and Workforce Engagement.
Winners are selected from four classifications:
- 25 beds or less (including, but not limited to, critical access hospitals)
- 26-100 beds
- 101-300 beds
- More than 300 beds
Each year, these awards are presented at a luncheon at the Arizona Hospital Leadership Conference.
Applications for the 2027 AzHHA Quality Awards will open in spring 2027.
2026 award winners
Thank you to everyone who submitted an application for the 2026 AzHHA Quality Awards! These nominations reflected the tremendous work happening across our state to keep advancing outstanding care for all Arizonans. In 2026, awards were presented for Top Overall Excellence, Outstanding Patient/Community Impact and Workforce Engagement. Winners were selected from four classifications: 25 beds or less (including, but not limited to, critical access hospitals), 26-100 beds, 101-300 beds and more than 300 beds.
Congratulations to our 2026 award winners:
Top Overall Excellence winner Kingman Regional Medical Center
Top Overall Excellence Award (recognizing the highest achievement among the top scorers from each category): Kingman Regional Medical Center for its submission titled “Building a sustainable pre-licensure nurse workforce pipeline.”
Outstanding Patient/Community Impact Award (recognizing healthcare facilities that have made a direct and measurable difference in patient outcomes in the hospital and community setting)
- 25 beds or less: Sage Memorial Hospital for its submission titled “Inpatient hemodialysis program development and implementation.”
- 26-100 beds: Valley View Medical Center for its submission titled “Quarterly RQI: Enhancing competency through low-dose, high-frequency learning.”
- 101-300 beds: Southern Arizona VA Health Care System for its submission titled “Enhancing ICU medication safety.”
- More than 300 beds: Onvida Health for its submission titled “Reducing blood culture contamination rate.”
Workforce Engagement Award (recognizing healthcare facilities and teams that achieved outstanding results in clinical workflows, workforce and process improvement)
- 25 beds or less: San Carlos Apache Healthcare for its submission titled “Flourishing as a new nurse in rural Arizona: Gozhǫǫ in nursing at Izee֙ Baa Gowąh.”
- 26-100 beds: Valley View Medical Center for its submission titled “Improving the patient experience: Leader Rounding 2.0.”
- 101-300 beds: Kingman Regional Medical Center for its submission titled “Building a sustainable pre-licensure nurse workforce pipeline.”
- More than 300 beds: Northern Arizona Healthcare for its submission titled “Advancing early discharges to improve throughput and patient flow.”
View submission summaries from the 2026 AzHHA Quality Awards winners and runners up.
View pictures from the 2026 AzHHA Quality Awards Luncheon.