The Victorian Public Healthcare Awards provide a unique opportunity for healthcare professionals to be recognised by their peers for their commitment to innovation and excellence in healthcare.
The independence of the awards are maintained through the dedication and integrity of the judges, who generously volunteer their time and expertise to appraise the entries. Their passion and ongoing commitment is vital to the awards' success.
Judge selection
Each year, the Awards Team invites professionals working in the sector to be judges, including previous award winners and those with specific experience or expertise.
All judges are external to the Department of Health and come from a cross-section of Victorian health services, non-government organisations and peak bodies.
The judges are external volunteers from a range of positions, including board members, chief executives, general managers, directors, health researchers, quality managers, commissioners, patient advocates, policy advisors and consumers.
The Awards Team assigns a judging panel to each category. Individual panel members are selected for their expertise and experience and to ensure the panel represents diversity and the full spectrum of healthcare activity.
The Awards Secretariat also appoints a Chair of Judges.
Judging panels
The judging panels' role is to review and assess the entries for their assigned category and make recommendations to the department and Ministers on who they believe should win based on how they score against the awards criteria.
The judging panels will assess and rank the entries according to the award category's specified criteria and weightings. Please refer to each award category for further information.
Chair of Judges
The awards judging process is overseen by the Chair of Judges.
The Chair of Judges:
- is assigned to judge some categories
- takes an overarching view of the entries and judging process
- provides advice and feedback to the department, entrants and judges
- helps to settle any conflicts or issues that may arise during the judging period.
Judging process
- The judges use the awards assessment criteria to score each entry.
- The online judging portal collates the judges' scores to arrive at an overall ranking.
- The judging panel for each award category meets to discuss the rankings, any anomalies or tied results, and to recommend the winners and finalists to the department, Minister for Health, Health Infrastructure and Ambulance Services; the Minister for Mental Health, Ageing and Multicultural Affairs; and the Minister for Children and Disability for endorsement.
- The Ministers make the final decision on all awards winners based on the judges' recommendations.
It is expected that there will be only one winner for each award, although the judges may recommend any number according to the merit of the entries.
View more information about judging in the awards terms and conditions.
Reviewed 08 April 2024