💡 Fast Facts: Tutera’s Quality Award Winners
- Seven Tutera Senior Living communities earned the Silver – Achievement in Quality Award in 2026: Country Gardens Assisted Living Community, Eiler Senior Living, Greenfield Senior Living, Mission Chateau Senior Living Community, Morton Memory Care, Rolling Meadows Senior Living and Tiffany Springs Senior Living.
- Silver is the second of three award levels. A community must earn Bronze first, so reaching Silver shows it has moved beyond planning and can demonstrate established quality systems and measurable results.
- Applications are reviewed by trained examiners using a nationally recognized performance framework. Reviewers look at leadership, the resident and family experience, team development, daily operations and results.
- For families, the award provides an independent sign that a community takes a structured, ongoing approach to improving quality. It does not replace a tour or personal research, but it offers helpful evidence when comparing senior living options.
Choosing a senior living community for someone you love comes down to trust. Families need proof that a team will show up, day after day, with real skill and real heart. National quality awards offer exactly that kind of proof, which is why we’re excited to share this year’s results.
Seven Tutera Senior Living communities earned the 2026 AHCA/NCAL Silver Quality Award from the American Health Care Association (AHCA) and National Center for Assisted Living (NCAL). The achievement is especially significant in a record-setting year for the program. AHCA/NCAL recognized 255 Silver recipients across 43 states in 2026 as the National Quality Award Program celebrates its 30th anniversary.
Seven Tutera Communities Recognized Nationally
Congratulations to the following Tutera communities named among the 2026 AHCA/NCAL Silver Quality Award winners:
- Rolling Meadows Senior Living – Carroll, Iowa: An assisted living community offering personalized support with daily activities while helping residents maintain their independence.
- Tiffany Springs Senior Living – Kansas City, Missouri: A senior living community offering independent living, assisted living and memory care, allowing residents to receive additional support as their needs change.
- Mission Chateau Senior Living Community – Prairie Village, Kansas: Offers independent living, assisted living, memory care and short-term rehabilitation and recovery services.
- Country Gardens Assisted Living Community – Muskogee, Oklahoma: An assisted living community providing personalized support with daily tasks, medication management and other individual care needs.
- Morton Memory Care – Nebraska City, Nebraska: A dedicated memory care community serving individuals living with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.
- Eiler Senior Living – Clarinda, Iowa: An assisted living community offering personalized care, medication management and 24-hour on-site support.
- Greenfield Rehabilitation & Health Care Center – Greenfield, Iowa: A skilled nursing community providing short-term rehabilitation and long-term care for individuals who need recovery services or ongoing clinical support.
This recognition belongs to the team members who support residents each day and to the leaders who build systems that help those teams succeed. Earning Silver requires collaboration across roles, disciplined evaluation and a shared commitment to continuous improvement.
What Is the AHCA/NCAL National Quality Award Program?
The AHCA/NCAL National Quality Award Program recognizes long-term care and senior living providers that demonstrate progress toward performance excellence. It is based on the nationally recognized Baldrige Performance Excellence Framework, which helps organizations evaluate how their leadership, strategy, workforce, operations and results work together.
Applicants are reviewed by trained examiners and must meet increasingly rigorous criteria as they advance through the program’s three levels:
- Bronze – Commitment to Quality: Establishes a foundation for improvement by examining the organization’s mission, vision and key factors that support success.
- Silver – Achievement in Quality: Demonstrates that effective approaches and processes are in place to improve performance and health care outcomes.
- Gold – Excellence in Quality: Recognizes organizations that show superior performance and have fully integrated quality practices throughout their operations.
Organizations must earn Bronze before applying for Silver. Silver recipients are then eligible to pursue Gold, the program’s highest distinction.
What Earning Silver Means
The Silver – Achievement in Quality Award recognizes communities that can demonstrate measurable progress and sustained results. Applicants must explain the systems they use, show how those systems are reviewed and improved and provide results that demonstrate progress.
Trained examiners evaluate the organization as a whole. They consider leadership, resident and family needs, workforce support, daily processes and performance results. In simple terms, reviewers are looking for evidence that quality improvement is organized, consistent and producing meaningful outcomes.
For Tutera’s seven recipients, the award recognizes an ongoing process of asking important questions: What is working well? Where are there opportunities to improve? How can teams use information, feedback and outcomes to make the resident experience stronger?
That work happens over time. It involves examining processes, learning from results and making thoughtful changes that can be sustained.
Why This Recognition Matters to Families
Families often have many communities to consider and may not know how to compare them. Senior living quality awards can provide another useful piece of information by showing that an outside organization has reviewed how a provider approaches quality.
For families, the AHCA/NCAL Silver Quality Award can indicate:
- A clear process for reviewing performance and making improvements
- Leadership and team involvement in quality efforts
- Attention to resident and family feedback
- Use of results and data to guide decisions
- A commitment to learning and improving over time
An award should be considered alongside a community tour, conversations with team members and questions about care, services and daily life. Together, those details can help families make a more informed decision.
How Tutera Puts Quality Into Practice
At Tutera, quality starts with understanding each resident as an individual. Through YOUNITE, Tutera’s guiding philosophy, team members learn about residents’ routines, preferences, interests and goals. That knowledge helps guide care, services and everyday opportunities.
Personalized support is strengthened by consistent processes behind the scenes. Teams review feedback, evaluate results and identify ways to improve the resident experience. The seven Silver Awards recognize progress in that work and reinforce the responsibility to keep building on it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the AHCA/NCAL National Quality Award Program?
It is a national program that recognizes long-term care and senior living providers for their approach to performance improvement. Organizations progress through Bronze, Silver and Gold levels.
What is the Silver – Achievement in Quality Award?
Silver is the program’s second level. It recognizes providers that have established quality improvement systems and can show measurable results.
Who reviews the applications?
Trained examiners review each application using criteria based on the Baldrige Performance Excellence Framework.
Why is the award useful to families?
It provides independent, third-party evidence that a community has a structured approach to evaluating performance and improving quality. It is one helpful factor to consider when researching senior living.
Celebrating Tutera’s 2026 Silver Award Winners
Tutera is proud to recognize Country Gardens, Eiler Senior Living, Greenfield Senior Living, Mission Chateau, Morton Memory Care, Rolling Meadows and Tiffany Springs. Their achievement places them among award-winning senior living communities demonstrating a meaningful commitment to quality improvement.
If you are exploring assisted living, memory care or other senior living options, find a Tutera Senior Living community near you and schedule a visit.
