Awards

Healthiest Laboratory Award

The Healthiest Laboratory Award celebrates excellence in environmental stewardship and health promotion in both practice and policy. It recognizes APHL member laboratories demonstrating outstanding efforts to reduce their collective environmental impact and to promote health & wellness programs.

Based on highest submitted scores from the Healthiest Laboratory Self-Assessment Checklist, APHL will recognize the Healthiest Laboratory Award winners during an awards luncheon at the 2012 APHL Annual Meeting on May 20-23, 2012. Winning laboratories receive the option of choosing from a suite of laboratory-related prizes associated with environmental sustainability and health promotion.

The Healthiest Lab Award is generously sponsored by APHL Diamond Level Sustaining Member, HDR.

Completing the Healthiest Laboratory Self-Assessment

The Healthiest Laboratory Initiative Self-Assessment Checklist was developed as an evaluation tool to assess environmental responsibility and healthy workplace practices within member laboratories. The measures were chosen based on their ability to improve the environment and personal health promotion within the laboratory; as well as, ease of implementation and relative low cost for laboratories. The self-assessment fields include three main areas of focus within the laboratory framework: health promotion, environmental sustainability and policy implementation.

To be eligible to receive the Healthiest Lab Award, you must complete the online Assessment Checklist by March 23, 2012. Only one submission per laboratory is allowed.

Healthiest Laboratory Self-Assessment Checklist

For your convenience in completing the checklist, you can access a PDF version of the assessment tool here.

Healthiest Laboratory Award Selection Process

All APHL member laboratories are encouraged to complete the Healthiest Laboratory Self-Assessment Checklist. However, laboratories are only eligible to receive the Healthiest Laboratory Award once every three years.
Winners are chosen based solely on the scores received on the APHL Healthiest Laboratory Self-Assessment Checklist.

Past Winners

2011 Recipients
Healthiest Lab Award Overall Winner: Arkansas Public Health Laboratory
Healthiest Lab Award Runner-up: New York State Department of Agriculture & Markets

2010 Recipients
Healthiest Lab Award Overall Winner: Texas Department of State Health Services Laboratory
Healthiest Lab Award Runner-up: Arkansas Public Health Laboratory

Background on the Healthiest Laboratory Initiative

APHL is committed to the advancement of environmental stewardship and health promotion in laboratory practice. Concern for the environmental impact of laboratories and workforce wellness spearheaded the development of a vision for a “healthier” laboratory community. To this end, APHL launched the Healthiest Laboratory Initiative (HLI) in 2009 to support environmental and health promotion knowledge, practices and policies among member laboratories.

The mission of the HLI aims to integrate a culture of workforce health promotion and environmental responsibility within the public laboratory landscape. HLI’s objective is to promote, coordinate and optimize the availability of health and environmentally-related resources for member public health and environmental laboratories in their efforts towards a healthier existence.

HLI strives to assist member laboratories in self-evaluating and improving their health status. Valuing excellence in environmental responsibility and workforce wellness, APHL invites member laboratories to pledge support for a “healthier” laboratory by participating in the Healthiest Laboratory Initiative.

The goals of the Healthiest Laboratory Initiative are to foster:

Healthy personal choices for employees, members, and guests

Environmental responsibility

Initiatives related to promoting health

Focus on a more proactive, prevention-focused perspective on health

Change in how we define a successful system (i.e. tracking measures of health and not disease)

APHL's role in engaging the broader laboratory community

Awards

Completing the Healthiest Laboratory Self-Assessment

Healthiest Laboratory Award Selection Process

Past Winners

Background on the Healthiest Laboratory Initiative

Contact

Drew Gaskins

Award NominationS

Related Content

HLI Resources