Center City, Minn. (June 13, 2008) - Hazelden has been honored by the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers (NAATP) with the 2008 James W. West, M.D., Quality Improvement Award. Hazelden was one of five organizations recognized with the award at NAATP's recent national leadership conference in Indian Hills, Cal.

In recognizing Hazelden, NAATP said, "In the early 1990's, Hazelden adopted a Total Quality Management (TQM) approach to improvement, using Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) methods to improve clinical processes across the organization. While this yielded some very significant results, they believed that they could do even more. Their effort was to create a culture of continuous improvement, one in which there was a focus on process and systems and a minimization of individual blame or retribution. They were especially interested in looking at medical/health errors."

"Hazelden has a long history of using CPI to improve clinical care and safety for its patients," NAATP said. Hazelden "takes great pride in its process improvement culture aimed at improving patient outcomes. Hazelden looks to its quality improvement efforts as a prime way to build on its reputation as a center of evidence-based practices and a leader in the addiction treatment field."

The award is named in honor of James W. West, M.D. medical director emeritus of the Betty Ford Center in recognition of his pioneering efforts and ongoing support of quality improvement. It is presented by NAATP and co-sponsored by the Betty Ford Center and Behavioral Healthcare, a Vendome Group, LLC Publication. This is the eighth consecutive year the award has been presented to honor organizations in the area of quality improvement.

The award was also presented to Lakeside-Milam Recovery Centers of Seattle, Wash.; Gateway Rehabilitation Center of Pittsburgh, Penn;  CRC Health Group of Cupertino, Cal., and Residence XII of Kirkland, Wash.

A more detailed report on these five efforts can be found in the June 2008 issue of Behavioral Healthcare.