Criteria and Requirements to Enter the Asian Elderly Care Awards
There are many ways of and reasons for selecting what improvements to make. These improvements will finally become a project worthy of entering in the awards. You can select an improvement area based on one or more of the following (not mutually exclusive) criteria:
1. A service area that has the most complaints from the elderly.
For example:
• waiting time for service
• complaints from those in your care for your not providing food or medication needed on time
• arriving late for home care
• lousy food
• grouchy service
2. Aged care safety that needs to be improved
• wrong medication
• wrong recommended activity
• elderly falling off beds
• poor facility design
• uneven or too high steps
• areas not well lit
• innovations in Wellness, Spa, Yoga or fitness
• assisted living improvements
3. Areas in which expenses keep rising
• adding more and more caregiving staff
• number of housekeeping staff growing much higher than average
• food costs going up
• travel time becoming really poor
• pension fund maximization
4. Efficiency improvement areas
• number of caregiver per elderly going up
• using technology to improve service
• using technology for elderly records
• care technology to make it easy for the elderly
• the speed of emergency care
5. Revenue-generating areas
• using digital marketing
• branding products and services
• offering new/related services
6. Community involvement activities
• working together with the community
• encouraging caregivers and the elderly to participate in community projects
• working with the government to improve aged care in the country
• new research into elderly wellbeing
There are many, THOUSANDS, more:
Finding and assigning improvement teams is the first, easiest and most important step in continuous quality improvement.
Requirements:
The Asian Elderly Care Awards is for projects or programs implemented or significantly enhanced in January 2017 to November 2018, as opposed to a continuing program or activity.
For each category, there are 5 to 7 questions that you need to answer. Each question has a word count limit of 150 to 250 words, more or less. The questions are not the same and are slightly different for each category.
1. What is the background of the project?
Why was this project chosen? And what are the objectives or outcomes that you want to achieve as a result of starting this project? Was the project started because of frequent customer complaints? Or was it initiated by one of the staff members?
2. Who does the project benefit and how does it benefit?
Does it benefit the employees, or the community, or the care specialists, or the elderly customer, or all of the above? Is it a major benefit? Is it a major change in the service you are delivering? Does it really matter that the project doesn’t benefit all elderly being cared for? For example, a good project could be one that benefits just those who go to physical therapy. Another good project would benefit all visitors because it simplifies the way they visit your institution.
3. Did you measure?
In order to be a winner or runner-up, you need to offer some kind of measurement to demonstrate what was it like before the project started and what were the measurable results that were achieved. In this sense, your project should take before and after measurements.
4. What were the quality tools that the team used?
Did you use the Fishbone diagram? Did use a flowchart or FMEA?
5. There is usually a question about the project team
The judges want to see if the team that was assembled can address the problem at hand. Usually, in an institution for the elderly, there is a large interdependence of different services and departments. Were all those that really matter included in the project team? Who was the team leader? How did the team function?
6. Are the results sustainable?
How can you demonstrate that they are? Do you have testimonials from those you serve on the improvement this project achieved? Was it mentioned in your annual report? Are there any newspaper reports? Did you win any awards?
7. Final word.
And finally, a very important question is to be answered in all categories. This is an open-ended question that allows you to state whatever you would like to say that you feel will convince the judges that you should win.
You can cite statistics, give your own rationale or provide competitive data. Meaning it’s up to YOU to convince the judges.
You are allowed to submit attachments to explain or support your answers, and you should. Make sure your attachments are relevant and clear. Attachments must be no more than 10MB.
All entries must be accompanied by the CEO Certificate. Download a copy HERE.
GOOD LUCK: YOU and your customer can only benefit from your entering 🙂
For questions and other inquiries, contact:
(Ms) Karishma Mandhyan, Awards Coordinator
[email protected]