Verde Valley Medical center has been awarded the 2007 Employer Excellence Award by the Arizona Nurses Association (AzNA). Only one State healthcare facility in honored with this award once every two years for outstanding support of nursing leadership and creating a professional environment of nursing practice, education and excellence.

VVMC is a vital regional healthcare resource to the Verde Valley communities. It recognizes nursing education excellence by supporting the pursuit of advanced degrees and specialty certifications of its nurses, and supports professional collaboration and collegiality through shared governance and nurse-physician summits.

Innovative approaches to patient care delivery have been put into place such as the reduction in use of contract labor, implementation of the new graduate training programs, use of nurse practitioners in clinics and use of clinical nurse specialists to provide advance clinical support to nursing staff and patients. VVMC promotes nursing research, patient safety and quality improvement initiatives. Nurses, and all employees at VVMC, are considered leaders who are expected to be actively involved in creating systems and processes that work toward making VVMC the best hospital in Arizona.”

Jeannette Sasmor, R.N.E., M.B.A., AzNA Chair/Scholarship and Awards Committee said, “Each and every member of the nursing staff, medical staff, support staff and ancillary healthcare providers contribute every day to making Verde Valley Medical Center an Arizona healthcare leader. There is no doubt that patient safety and high quality care are the primary goals at VVMC.”