Out of nearly 300 entries, the Dallas County (Texas) Hospital District’s Community Oriented Primary Care Program was chosen as one of the recipients of the Public Employees Roundtable (PER) 1996 Public Service Excellence Award in the county category.
The mission of the award-winning program is to improve the health of medically underserved individuals through easily accessible primary care, health maintenance and medical intervention programs.
Since 1985, these awards have paid tribute to groups of government employees whose programs exhibit the highest standard of dedication, excellence and accomplishment.
The criteria for the selection of the awards included:
• measurable productivity or service delivery improvement
• accomplishments that improve the quality of life of Americans, and
• programs or projects that have increased cost-effectiveness of governmental services.
There also were three counties honored with awards of special recognition:
• Citrus Municipal Court’s (Los Angeles County, Calif.) Subpoena — The goals of the program were to modify available computer systems, pooling personnel resources, adjusting subpoena scheduling and accepting an unconventional view of witness availability. Reductions of 30 to 50 percent in overtime costs by local law enforcement agencies were reported to date.
• Orange County (Fla.) Corrections Division Community Distribution Center — This is a successful operation that operates out of a warehouse where inmates are taught real-life skills, such as warehousing. The construction industry provides the materials for practical training. The materials, once inventoried, are given at no cost to non-profit organizations which otherwise would have approached Orange County for financial assistance to supplement their operating budgets.
• Louisville/Jefferson County (Ky.) Parks Department Children’s Summer Day Camp — The county offers an eight-week summer camp program for children age 6 and older. Youth and teens enjoy a safe, wholesome environment to explore interests in sports, arts, community and the outdoors.
PER is a nonprofit, nonpartisan coalition of 37 management and professional associations representing more than one million public employees and retirees.