PARIS — The Maine Veterans’ Homes in Machias, Scarborough and South Paris are recipients of the American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living’s 2014 Silver National Quality Award, an honor recognizing select long-term care facilities that serve as models of excellence in providing high-quality long-term care.

The three Homes are the only facilities in Maine to receive Silver Awards this year.

“These recipients have demonstrated strong approaches that will lead them to improved performance,” said Ed McMahon, Ph.D., chair of the AHCA/NCAL National Quality Award Board of Overseers. “I congratulate all of them for being on this quality improvement path.”

The program has three levels: Bronze, Silver and Gold. As a recipient of the Silver – Achievement in Quality Award, these centers and their staff have demonstrated systematic advancements in quality, plans for continual improvement, and sustainable organizational goals.

“This is an incredible accomplishment for the three Homes and is a reflection of how our staff is dedicated to our mission of ‘caring for those who served,’” said Deb Fournier, MVH chief operations officer. “All six of our Homes recently received Bronze Awards and I know the other three Homes are ideal candidates to receive the Silver Award in the very near future.”

Only seven other long-term care facilities in Maine have received the Silver Award since its inception. The Caribou and Scarborough Homes each received Bronze Awards in 2012, while Augusta, Bangor, Machias and South Paris received theirs in 2010.

Implemented by AHCA/NCAL in 1996, the National Quality Award Program is centered on the core values and criteria of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program. The program assists providers of long term and post-acute care services in achieving their performance excellence goals.

Recipients of the Silver Award may now move forward in developing approaches and achieving performance levels that meet the criteria required for the Gold – Excellence in Quality Award, which requires them to address the Baldrige Health Care Criteria for Performance Excellence.