BC Quality Awards

Celebrating People and Projects Improving the Quality of Care in British Columbia.

Nominations Are Now Closed

Thank you for your interest in the BC Quality Awards: celebrating the people and projects that have made key contributions to quality and innovation in the delivery of care in BC.

Winners will be announced in early 2024. Awards will be presented at Quality Forum 2024.

Learn more about the BC Quality Awards

Frequently Asked Questions

The BC Quality Awards are an annual celebration of people and projects that improved the quality of care in British Columbia. They were established in 2009

Five Excellence in Quality categories represent the five areas of care as defined by the BC Health Quality Matrix, and four individual categories celebrate inspiring patients, caregivers and health care practitioners.

Any project that improved the quality of health care in BC, and any person whose dedication to improvement inspires you!

Anyone, including those who work in health care, as well as patients, caregivers and family members!

Yup!

As many as you wish! But each project or person can only be nominated in one category. You’ll have to choose the category that’s the best fit.

Yes, at your discretion. Judges are welcome to select team nominations from these categories if they stand out, though the category is designed for individuals.

Sure! Note that these examples are for the Phase 2 submissions.

For examples of great nominations for our project-based Excellence in Quality award categories, take a look at 2018’s Staying Healthy award winner (now Strengthening Health & Wellness) and 2014’s Living with Illness or Disability award winner.

Want an example of a great nomination for an individual? Here is the nomination for 2018’s Quality Culture Trailblazer award winner.

Want more ideas for making your nomination stand out? Check out our top tips.

A group of leaders in quality and safety, patients and HQBC team members.

Winners are awarded a $2,500 sponsorship to help support and disseminate learning from their projects or to support ongoing learning and development. The five Excellence in Quality project winners are invited to present their project at the Quality Forum.

We’re sorry you didn’t find what you were looking for! Contact us at 604.668.8210 or awards@healthqualitybc.ca and we’ll be happy to help.

Have more questions? Get in touch awards@healthqualitybc.ca.

2024 BC Quality Awards Judges

The BC Quality Award judges are comprised of leaders in quality and safety, patients and HQBC team members.

Craig Mitton

Council Member, Health Quality BC and Professor, School of Population & Public Health

Caroline Sanders

Associate Professor, Nursing, University of Northern British Columbia

Patrick O’Connor

Patient Partner

Neil Drimer

Senior Improvement Lead, Healthcare Excellence Canada

Charmaine Niebergall

Engagement Leader, Health Quality BC

Christina Krause

CEO, Health Quality BC

Michel White

Patient Partner

Doug Cochrane

Board Chair, Interior Health and past-Chair, Health Quality BC

Aditya Sharma

Board Member, Patient Care Quality Review Boards

George Abbott

Board Chair, Institute for Health System Transformation & Sustainability

Vanessa McLennan

Student Intern, Health Quality BC

Andrew Wray

Executive Director, Health Quality BC 

2024 BC Quality Award Winners & Runners Up

Ranking
Categories
  • Optimizing the Early Years - Winner - BC Autism Assessment Network
    • Optimizing the Early Years

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    • 2024

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    • Winner
    Streamlined Assessment Program – Advancing Early Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder

    BC Children’s Hospital & Provincial Health Services Authority

    The British Columbia Autism Assessment Network launched a new strategy aimed at achieving earlier diagnoses of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The Streamlined Assessment Program is now leading to better quality care for affected children in BC by addressing a growing need for timelier assessments, particularly among minimally verbal children aged less than 43 months, who demonstrate clear signs of ASD symptoms.
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  • Optimizing the Early Years - Runner Up - Newborn Screening BC Program
    • Optimizing the Early Years

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    • 2024

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    • Runner-Up
    Newborn Screening BC Program

    Provincial Health Services Authority

    Provincial Laboratory Medicine Services and Perinatal Services BC worked together to implement new newborn screening protocols for three additional treatable conditions under accelerated timelines and an expanded testing program. Since this new protocol was introduced, 16 infants have been identified and received a clinical intervention because of these additional screening tests.
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  • Strengthening Health & Wellness - Winner - Northern Health Lab Outpatient Improvement Program
    • Strengthening Health & Wellness

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    • 2024

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    • Winner
    Northern Health Lab Outpatient Improvement Program

    Northern Health

    Northern Health (NH) launched the Lab Outpatient Improvement Project (LOIP) to address long wait times to access outpatient lab services in Northern BC. Through LOIP, they began offering a blended service model of scheduled and unscheduled lab appointments where patients could self-schedule either online using the HealthElife portal or by phone. Patients can also drop-in and avoid long line-ups using NH Check-In for queueing, and they have the flexibility to bring in a requisition or have it sent straight to the lab.
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  • Strengthening Health & Wellness - Runner Up - Fraser Health Frail Elderly-Older Adult Network
    • Strengthening Health & Wellness

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    • 2024

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    • Runner-Up
    Fraser Health Frail Elderly-Older Adult Network

    Fraser Health

    Fraser Health’s Frail Elderly-Older Adult Network recognized a proactive, community-based change was required to meet the needs of the aging population. They partnered with care providers, patient partners, their families and the community to develop and roll out the Regional Delirium Strategy. By June 2022, a pilot was rolled out across all 12 medicine units in Surrey Memorial Hospital and has since evolved into what is now known as the Regional Delirium Strategy for Fraser Health.
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  • Returning to Health & Wellness - Winner - Reducing Wait Times for BC Childrens Hospital for PICC Lines
    • Returning to Health & Wellness

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    • 2024

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    • Winner
    Reducing Wait Times for BC Children’s Hospital for PICC Lines

    BC Children’s Hospital & Provincial Health Services Authority

    Children who are cared for at BC Children’s Hospital (BCCH) are able to receive timely treatment closer to home – and in some cases, at home itself – thanks to the innovative work of BCCH’s POKe and PIVOT team. The POKe (PICC Opportunities for Kids) and PIVOT (Pediatric IV Outpatient Therapy) team is a combined interdisciplinary team at BCCH, formed to both reduce the waiting time for PICC insertions for IV therapy and increase access to outpatient services.
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  • Returning to Health & Wellness - Runner Up - Radioactive Seed for Breast Cancer Surgery
    • Returning to Health & Wellness

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    • 2024

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    • Runner-Up
    Radioactive Seeds for Breast Cancer Surgery

    Fraser Health

    An improvement initiative to find alternative solutions for localizing breast cancers and breast lesions in need of surgical removal has led to the use of a radioactive seeds as a new technique. This has not only increased patient safety and satisfaction but has also resulted in time and cost savings at Fraser Health. The seeds, which are no larger than a grain of rice, are used as an alternative to fine wire localization, and are now the standard across Fraser Health hospitals where breast cancer surgery is performed.
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  • Living with Illness or Disability - Winner - RISE Community Health Centre
    • Living with Illness or Disability

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    • 2024

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    • Winner
    RISE Community Health Centre, part of Collingwood Neighbourhood House (CNH)

    RISE Community Health Centre in Vancouver is a primary care clinic offering services including family doctors and nurse practitioners. But what they offer is much more – and is grounded in a commitment to improve the health and well-being of people with chronic illness and disability. RISE (Resilient, Integrative, Socially Just and Equitable) offers team-based care to local residents with supports available for medical and social needs.
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  • Living with Illness or Disability - Runner Up - Parkinson Wellness Projects
    • Living with Illness or Disability

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    • 2024

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    • Runner-Up
    Parkinson Wellness Projects

    Parkinson Disease (PD) is a progressive and long-term disorder with no known cure. It is the fastest-growing neurological disease in the world, with approximately 15,000 people in BC living with PD – a number that is projected to double by 2040.   Almost all of those in the Parkinson’s community are seniors, and half of all…
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  • Coping with Transition from Life - Winner - Cognitive Stimulation Therapy in Comox Valley
    • Coping with Transition from Life

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    • 2024

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    • Winner
    Cognitive Stimulation Therapy in Comox Valley

    Island Health

    What began as an initiative by two occupational therapists with a passion for person-centred, evidence-based care has become a program improving quality of life for people living with mild-moderate dementia in Vancouver Island’s Comox Valley. The Cognitive Stimulation Therapy initiative delivers evidence-based, non-pharmacologic interventions for mild-moderate dementia to patients and their informal caregivers.
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  • Coping with Transition from Life - Runner Up - NH Palliative Care Consultation Team
    • Coping with Transition from Life

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    • 2024

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    • Runner-Up
    Northern Health Palliative Care Consultation Team

    Northern Health

    The Northern Health Palliative Care Consultation Team supports people in both palliative and end-of-life care. The team aims to make palliative care more consistent, accessible and equitable, filling gaps that previously existed. They value community-based care and, by engaging with primary care providers, their efforts prevent unnecessary hospital admissions. This innovative approach, rooted in collaboration and quality, has set a pioneering standard, prompting other health authorities to follow suit.
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  • Leadership in Co-Creating Health with Communities - Winner - Clearwater
    • Leadership in Co-Creating Health with Communities

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    • 2024

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    • Winner
    Shifting Advocacy to Action: Co-Creating Care with Clearwater

    Interior Health

    In 2022, Dr. Helmcken Memorial Hospital in Clearwater found itself facing the same severe staff shortages endemic across the health care system. The Interior Health operational team, with support from Communications and Engagement, recognized a solution lay not just in updating the staffing model, but by engaging broadly with the small community of just over 2,300.
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  • Leadership in Co-Creating Health with Communities - Runner Up - IH PCQO
    • Leadership in Co-Creating Health with Communities

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    • 2024

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    • Runner-Up
    Patient Care Quality Office at Interior Health

    Interior Health

    To build on the work already underway to make the health care system safer for Indigenous Peoples, Interior Health (IH) hired two Indigenous Patient Care Quality & Safety Consultants as part of the IH Patient Care Quality Office (PCQO). With support from the IH Indigenous Partnerships team and the First Nations Health Authority, the Indigenous consultants began ongoing engagement with the with Indigenous Peoples in the region to build awareness of the PCQO and to invite collaboration and input into the design of the IH Indigenous PCQO process.
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  • Doug Cochrane Leadership in Quality - Winner - Kris Gustavson
    • Leadership in Quality

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    • 2024

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    • Winner
    Kris Gustavson 

    Provincial Health Services Authority

    Kris Gustavson is well known in health care circles for her compassion and commitment, and for sharing her wisdom. As the Corporate Director of Accreditation and Patient Experience for the Provincial Health Services Authority, she is respected, trusted and admired for her ability to engage at all levels, and for creating an environment that fosters learning and improving.
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  • Doug Cochrane Leadership in Quality - Runner Up - Cynthia Johansen
    • Leadership in Quality

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    • 2024

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    • Runner-Up
    Cynthia Johansen

    Cynthia is the Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of the British Columbia College of Nurses and Midwives (BCCNM), the regulator for the province’s 67,000 nurses and midwives. She was instrumental in bringing the province’s nursing colleges together as a single regulator for all nursing designations in 2018, and then a further amalgamation in 2020 with the provincial midwifery regulator. Now known as the BCCNM, it is the largest regulator in Western Canada.
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  • Everyday Champion - Winner - Shannon Paul-Jost
    • Everyday Champion

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    • 2024

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    • Winner
    Shannon Paul-Jost 

    Interior Health

    Through a long career in nursing and a desire to make her own community better, Shannon Paul-Jost is an Everyday Champion for older adults. She has years of experience working with seniors and is deeply knowledgeable about this population, their challenges, needs and the barriers they encounter. Her experience has served her well as a Clinical Nurse Specialist on the Long-term Care Services team for Interior Health.
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  • Everyday Champion - Runner Up - John Hwang
    • Everyday Champion

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    • 2024

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    • Runner-Up
    John Hwang

    Fraser Health

    John Hwang’s impact at Fraser Health extends much further than the operating rooms at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster. The general surgeon is a long-time champion of quality improvement (QI), and he’s become an inspiration for both leaders and frontline staff to make QI a part of their everyday work.
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  • Leadership in Advancing Patient Voices - Winner - Laurie Edmundson
    • Leadership in Advancing the Patient Voice

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    • 2024

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    • Winner
    Laurie Edmundson

    Patient Voice

    Laurie Edmundson has worked tirelessly to advance the patient voice to help improve health care services, both across BC and internationally. Because of her vulnerability and willingness to share her own story about navigating borderline personality disorder and other mental health challenges, she has inspired others and helped shape the way services are delivered.
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  • Leadership in Advancing Patient Voices - Runner Up - Vivian Tsang
    • Leadership in Advancing the Patient Voice

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    • 2024

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    • Runner-Up
    Vivian Tsang

    Patient Voice

    Vivian Tsang began her journey in health care as a soft-spoken 16-year-old, participating as a patient partner in a research study at BC Children’s Hospital. A decade later, and now a physician, she’s making her voice heard as an advocate for youth advisory voices in research.
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Learn About the Past BC Quality Award Winners