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Read about the 2025 Quest for Quality Prize winner and finalist — and apply for the 2026 award

Each day, health care professionals across the U.S. leverage technology, community collaboration and innovative models of care to ensure patients receive quality care. But what does quality care — and quality improvement — look like in practice?

For Hartford HealthCare in Connecticut, the winner of the 2025 AHA Quest for Quality Prize, quality care and improvement look like a dramatic drop in health care-associated infections (HAIs), thanks to a culture of continuous improvement.

“We talk every day, not about aspiring to be the best, but aspiring to be the best at getting better,” says Jeffrey Flaks, the system’s president and CEO. “We are obsessed with continuous improvement, and our 45,000 colleagues who produced these really extraordinary results challenge ourselves to learn from others, to identify new and better ways to do things and to work to reimagine health care constantly.”

This reframing of success and focus on patient safety led to a 70% reduction in HAIs between 2015 and 2023. Since then, every hospital in the system has earned an A safety rating from the Leapfrog Group.

Culture change is never easy. So how did Hartford HealthCare put this concept of continuous improvement into action and drop infection rates? They started at the beginning: hiring.

Leaders added a key change to the recruitment process — asking questions about safety behaviors and emotional intelligence. High-reliability organization training was also added to the onboarding process. These changes helped foster an environment in which employees can feel comfortable reporting safety events. Going one step further, leaders highlight employees who have experienced a near-miss event and caught the mistake just in time.

“You learn from errors, and our colleagues believe that by reporting events, we are putting the patient at the center and the organization is going to address the situation from a systematic point of view,” says Chief Quality Officer Stephanie Calcasola, R.N., who, along with Chief Clinical Officer Ajay Kumar, M.D., led the charge to bring down infection rates.

Hartford HealthCare also leveraged their Center for Education, Simulation and Innovation (CESI), one of the largest medical simulators in the country. To help reduce catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs), CESI was equipped with mannequins that allow nurses to practice real-life situations. According to Kumar, 96% of critical care nurses have been trained with simulation and CAUTIs were reduced by 30% over a five-month period.

While Hartford HealthCare leaned into culture change to improve quality, CommonSpirit Health standardized care to elevate performance across their health system. The Chicago-based system, which operates 140 hospitals across 24 states, was recognized as a finalist for the 2025 Quest for Quality Prize.

“We are particularly proud of our journey to becoming ‘One CommonSpirit,’ which is driving consistent improvements in quality and patient outcomes across the organization,” says system CEO Wright Lassiter III. “It’s not just about a single program, but a systemic shift toward a standardized approach that supports our ability to deliver high-quality care for all.”

An example of this is when leaders in the Pacific Northwest region saw success with artificial intelligence-enabled tools that notify a provider — prior to a visit — when cancer screenings should be ordered, CommonSpirit implemented the technology systemwide.

When a system-level priority is identified, the health system uses an eight-step process to roll it out across all hospital sites. The eight steps include deliverables like establishing baselines and goals, evidence-based strategies and performance feedback. In the past three years, the process has been used on nearly 20 metrics to elevate performance from below the national median to the top third or higher. Next up for CommonSpirit is creating a 10-year implementation for a single electronic health record system across all its sites.

The AHA celebrates these two health care organizations for their exceptional leadership in health care innovation, improving quality and advancing health in their communities.

Visit AHA.org or download the 2025 prize honoree booklet for more information on the outstanding work of these organizations.

The AHA Quest for Quality Prize honors hospitals and health systems that are committed to providing access to safe, timely, effective, efficient patient- and family-centered affordable care of exceptional quality. Applications for the 2026 Quest for Quality Prize are due Sept. 9. DOWNLOAD THE 2026 APPLICATION. Contact questforquality@aha.org with questions.

The AHA Quest for Quality Prize is sponsored by Laerdal Medical, a global leader in health care simulation.