La Porte City Specialty Care Director of Nursing Earns Always Improve Award

Ambre Benson, Director of Nursing at La Porte City Specialty Care, received the Care Initiatives Always Improve Award at Care Initiatives’ annual awards brunch Friday, Dec. 7 in West Des Moines.

The award is given to a Care Initiatives employee who embodies the company’s core value to always seek out ways to improve quality in every way.

Benson joined La Porte City Specialty Care in 2014 with a background primarily in obstetrics. Within months she complete coursework to become a certified MDS Coordinator. In 2016, when the director of nursing position opened up, Ambre took the opportunity to improve and committed to DON training.

During that same time, Benson played a key role in helping improve quality of care for resident, resident experience, employee engagement and teamwork, and overall culture in our home.

“In the past 2 years, we have taken on several quality assurance process improvement (QAPI) projects including reducing the number of alarms used, reducing use of antipsychotics, improving staff morale and satisfaction, and several other quality measurements that she was able to track,” Administrator Pamela Tallman said. “With Ambre in the role of Director of Nursing, we were able to achieve improved resident satisfaction rates and received the American Health Care Association’s Silver Quality Award.”

The “Always Improve” award is one of six Core Value Awards given to a nominated employee throughout our statewide organization of 3,000+ employees.