Keep America Beautiful Recognizes VHA Inc. with 2013 Distinguished Service Citation

VHA Inc., the national health care network, announced today it has received the 2013 Distinguished Service Citation from Keep America Beautiful for its community improvement efforts. VHA was nominated for the national award by Keep Irving Beautiful, an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful and Keep Texas Beautiful. The award was presented on Feb. 4 at the Keep America Beautiful National Conference in Charlotte, NC.

Keep America Beautiful is the nation’s leading nonprofit that brings people together to build and sustain vibrant communities. Through a network of more than 1,200 affiliate and participating organizations, they work with millions of volunteers to create clean, beautiful public places; reduce waste and increase recycling; generate positive impact on local economies; and inspire generations of environmental stewards.

“Receiving the national Distinguished Service Citation from Keep America Beautiful is an incredible honor for VHA and our employees,” said Terri Scannell, director of corporate citizenship and sustainability at VHA. “What makes it especially rewarding is VHA was the only recognized organization not primarily focused on beautification activities or the outdoors.”

“As a business focused on serving not-for-profit hospitals nationwide, giving back is integrated fully into the services and operations of VHA,” said Scannell. “In 2013, approximately 92 percent of our employees participated in our annual day of community service, volunteering more than 6,000 hours at 40 different organizations. Additionally, VHA supports employee volunteer efforts in the community year round by making a financial contribution to the nonprofit organization of their choice, based on the hours of community service they provide.”

Rick Hose, executive director for Keep Irving Beautiful, accepted the award on behalf of VHA. “We nominated VHA for this award due to their long track record of giving back to the community. The company and its employees are great partners for Keep Irving Beautiful. I am thrilled their work and service has been recognized.”

VHA Inc. is a national network of not-for-profit health care organizations working together to improve performance and efficiency in clinical, financial and operational management. Since 1977, when VHA established the first hospital membership organization, the company has applied its knowledge in analytics, contracting, consulting and network development to help members and customers achieve their strategic objectives. In 2013, VHA delivered $2.2 billion in savings and additional value to members. Serving 5,000 health system members and affiliates, VHA represents more than a quarter of the nation's hospitals. VHA also serves more than 118,000 non-acute health care customers enterprise-wide. VHA is based in Irving, Texas, and has 11 regional offices across the U.S. VHA, together with UHC, owns Novation, a supply chain company, and aptitude® , the health care industry's first online direct contracting market. VHA also owns Provista, a supply chain company serving the non-acute market as well as government, education and business. For more information, visit www.vha.com and follow us on Twitter (@VHAInc).