Martha Head, a secretary at Lake Prince Woods, has been selected as the Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement poster contest winner by the parent organization, United Church Homes and Services.

Head’s poster will be reproduced and shared among nearly 700 UCHS employees and distributed to 10 UCHS communities located in North Carolina and Virginia.

Head has been employed at Lake Prince Woods since 2010. Her award-winning poster carries the theme of a movie theater marquee with QAPI showings, 24/7, 365 days a year.

UCHS sponsored an employee contest to raise awareness for quality assurance and performance improvement in their healthcare centers. QAPI is the merger of two complementary approaches to quality management. Both involve seeking and using information, but they differ in key ways.

Quality assurance is a process of meeting quality standards and assuring that care reaches an acceptable level; performance improvement is a continual study of processes with the intent to decrease the likelihood of problems by identifying areas of opportunity and testing new approaches.

A solid sustained QAPI program creates a fulfillment for caregivers and offers better care and better quality of life for residents, company officials stated in a press release.

“An effective Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement (QAPI) Program is critical to our goals to improve care,” said Steve Paterson, chief quality and compliance officer. “This contest provided a way for employee involvement and to create awareness.”

United Church Homes & Services, a not-for-profit corporation located in Newton, N.C., operates three continuing care retirement communities, a Program for All-inclusive Care for the Elderly and six affordable senior housing communities across North Carolina and Virginia.