How do we ensure that 27 Caris Healthcare locations with more than 500 employees across five states remain grounded in our Caris Values and our mission to provide Hospice Care with Grace? Our Annual Awards Banquets, scheduled for October, are one way our management team remains connected and deeply invested in the success of everyone in the Caris Family. We hold three separate Awards Banquets —in Knoxville, Murfreesboro and Columbia, SC—to ensure every employee can attend. We ask our Interdisciplinary teams to trade off days of attendance so that we continue to care for our patients.

And, of course, we use the opportunity of bringing everyone together for the day to learn, reflect, celebrate and re-focus.

During the daylong meeting, Caris corporate and regional management update employees on how the company is performing:

• We look at patient and family satisfaction, customer satisfaction and quality outcomes.
• We assess how we’re doing in relation to our Vision, Mission and Values of the company.
• We review Caris’ innovative Three Most Important Things program and to provide excellent care stories are shared stories about the great care we provide to reinforce our core value of compassion.
• We dig into patient outcomes, such as symptom control benchmarks, comparing outcomes data against ourselves as well as national benchmarks.
• We give members of our interdisciplinary teams opportunities to share practices that generated excellent patient outcomes.

And, as to be expected whenever and wherever hospice advocates get together, we laugh, we shed an occasional tear, we bond and we support one another.

World Class Awards
During the Annual Employee Awards Banquets, Caris Healthcare recognize World Class Awards winners with a trophy and bonus check. The Caris World Class Awards program honors employees, volunteers and offices for excellence in Customer Service, Quality, and Patient Care. Employees are nominated by their peers. The Caris World Class Awards reflect and reinforce the Caris Values of Compassion, Accountability, Integrity, Respect and Service.

Caris Excellence Certification
Caris Healthcare also recognizes the collective team effort of individual offices that are the most successful in meeting and/or exceeding Caris goals through Caris Excellence Certification. This award promotes team work and encourages offices to obtain the highest level of achievement regarding Caris goals. This year’s office winner is Caris Bristol, Virginia. The Bristol office accepted the award at the banquet in Knoxville, Tennessee.