Star Award for Excellence in Patient Care

Application reviews are based on demonstrated clinical excellence and expertise, including local, regional or national reputation, consistently high quality of patient care, professionalism and communication, leadership, ability to work effectively with faculty, staff, students and administrators, clinical innovation, and continuous service to the Baylor community.

To be eligible for the Star Award for Excellence in Patient Care, you must be a full-time instructor*, assistant professor, associate professor or professor engaged in the patient care mission for at least 50 percent of your time (FTE) or part-time assistant professor, associate professor or professor engaged for at least 75 percent of your allocated part-time in support of clinical mission (refer to FAQs) with at least six years of clinical service as a Baylor faculty member. Faculty members who have transferred from other institutions and have comparable years of service are eligible for the award after three years as Baylor faculty members. Note, patient care contributions do not need to be restricted to direct patient care. Activities that count toward the FTE requirement may include clinical leadership/administrative roles, quality improvement efforts, scholarship and knowledge dissemination (publications, lectures) in clinical care, clinical innovation and development activities.

*Note that instructors do not include an instructor role as a trainee (i.e. as a fellow and/or chief resident). The instructor must be a faculty designation in which you provide (or have provided) clinical care. Examples include advanced practice providers, clinical geneticists and clinical psychologists.

Candidates may self-nominate. However, all nominations must be approved and submitted to the selection committee by the faculty member’s section chief, chair, medical director or center director.

An individual may receive the Star Award more than once. A new nomination may be submitted any time after five years since the previous Star Award. Recipients of the Rising Star Award (2014-2016) may be nominated for the Star Award beginning three years after they received the Rising Star. Applicants must wait at least five years after receiving the Early Career Award to apply for the Star Award.

Do not include any patient letters (current or historical letters, notes, cards or documents from patients or patients’ family members) regardless of redaction of personal information. It is, however, acceptable to include historical letters or documents from nurses, trainees, employees/staff that have been received in the past. Applicants and required to ensure and attest that such support letters do not contain references to patient information or identifiers. Also redact information related to personal information of peers or colleagues.

The following documents will need to be submitted to the online management system in pdf format:

• Nomination letter from section chief, chair, medical director or center director (Download example)
• Completed Faculty Awards for Excellence in Patient Care portfolio (download here).
• Note: Do not leave the portfolio sections blank using statements like “please refer to CV”). Portfolios will be used for rating and should be able to stand alone.
• Personal statement. Include your personal statement in essay form. This statement is the place for you to emphasize your clinical expertise. Limit 500 words. This statement should be separate from the general purpose personal statement that is part of the Baylor CV format.
• Up to 10 pages of supporting material that provides documentation of activities described in portfolio. Note that the portfolio will need to be completed to reflect candidate’s excellence in patient care, without deferring to CV. Note: Do not include any patient or family letters regardless of redaction of patient identifiers. Letters from current students and trainees also are not allowable. Comments from patients that are reported by Press Ganey are allowed.
• Up to five letters of recommendation from providers, institutional leaders, consultants, administrators, and/or community leaders. Letters should reflect diverse viewpoints and describe clinical excellence from a variety of perspectives.
• Curriculum Vitae (BCM format).

To learn more about the scoring process view the Scoring Sheet Example. For further information visit Frequently Asked Questions. For help navigating the application portal, visit a brief guide with login instructions.