The awards
The Health Service Excellence Awards is an opportunity to showcase and celebrate examples of the great work that happens every day across our health service. The awards also promote shared learning for other teams through our awards success stories.
Each year we look for projects that make a real and lasting difference to our health and social services.
Your project could be:
- improving access for patients
- delivering a higher quality of care to patients
- promoting pride among staff about our services
The awards are open to all staff (HSE and non-HSE) working in the public health system, and any service provided directly to the public including:
- clinical services
- primary care
- social or family support
- support services:
- catering
- portering
- maintenance
- security
- clerical management services (people management, information technology or service management initiatives)
Watch highlights from the 2023 Health Service Excellence Awards event - YouTube
2024 award categories
There are 6 award categories in total. Please complete an application form for each category you wish to enter.
Projects can be entered in a maximum of 2 categories. There will be 1 award winner in each category.
The 6 award categories are:
Improving patient experience
Show how changes or initiatives that your project introduced resulted in improvements in patient’s experience of our services.
This category is for projects that demonstrate how a service was improved, and/or projects that enabled staff to improve a service. This could include improved patient access or improved information for patients. Your entry should also identify the transferability of this improvement and how this initiative may have had other benefits. Other benefits include better use of resources, better communications, better access to information and better cooperation between services.
Innovation in service delivery
Show how your project has used innovative thinking and has made an improvement to the service received by both patient/service users/clients and for staff delivering the service in your location.
This award is for projects that implemented a solution to make things better while demonstrating efficiency, sustainability and value for money. Your project should demonstrate an integrated approach using innovative practices, systems or technologies. Your project should deliver enhanced service provision using a new concept or process, with identifiable improvements.
Excellence in quality and patient safety
Show how your project made things better and improved the quality and patient safety for the patient/service user/client.
Your project should identify quality and patient safety priorities. It should deliver measurable improvements and more targeted services that meet the needs of patients/service users/clients. Show how your project is based on stakeholder engagement and partnerships with colleagues and patients/service users/clients. Show how your project is patient/service user/client-centred and involves patients/service users/clients in its design, development and evaluation. Demonstrate how the project could be transferable to other healthcare settings.
Engaging a digital solution to provide a better service
Describe how your project utilised a digital solution in order to improve a process in your area.
Your project should identify how the introduction of a digital solution saves on resources and provides a more efficient and effective result. Describe the benefits achieved by introducing this project. Identify how your project enabled teams to work together to share knowledge and experience, solve problems and make decisions. Describe how it positively affected service provision and improved links across services. Show how it enhanced patient/service user/client services planning and overall operational effectiveness.
Right Care Right Place Right Time – Sláintecare Integration
Show how your project demonstrates resilience and innovation in the Irish health service.
This award category will highlight and celebrate resilience and innovation in the Irish Health Service, with a focus on projects that contribute to the delivery of Sláintecare goals. The award will favour projects that deliver person-centred integrated care in 3 particular areas: care pathways and national plans and strategies; Enhanced Community Care; and Sláintecare Healthy Community Programmes - Social Inclusion, Social Prescribing and Mental Health.
Working together for a greener health service
This is a new category. Show how your project demonstrates teamwork and collaboration to ensure we are providing a more sustainable health service.
Your project should demonstrate how you are working together to make improvements in 1 or more of the 6 priority areas in the HSE Climate Action Strategy 2023 – 2050. Demonstrate how your team used an integrative approach and worked with others in order to realise this project. This can be in a hospital, community or corporate setting. It can also be an application from a green team or energy team. The project should show how you measured your improvements and should be transferable to other facilities.