Kaitlin Clegg serves as the Administrator at Sumner Place, a skilled nursing and assisted living facility in Lincoln, Nebraska. The community received a 2025 AHCA/NCAL Silver National Quality Award, reflecting a strong commitment to its staff, residents, families, and the local community.
The Quality Journey from Start to Now
For Kaitlin, the Quality Award process has been a significant learning experience: “Bronze is really an overview of who you are as a company. You don't have to do a ton of data during that phase, but it gives you a solid foundation, and it starts helping to you think about that quality journey.”
When it came to pursuing Silver, the team chose to wait until they were truly ready after Kaitlin became a Silver Examiner and realized their systems needed more evaluation: “There were things we were doing and improving, but we weren’t asking why we did them or how to make them better. Silver really helped us identify those changes, and it allowed us to communicate with our team more effectively about what we were working on. It’s been good to show them the improvements we’ve made and what that looks like.”
Valuing People
At Sumner Place, valuing people is more than a principle, it’s the daily mission: “Our mission statement is ‘dignity in life’. Even when we interview people, we ask, ‘What does dignity in life mean to you?’ For us, it means treating everyone as the most important person.
“This value is woven into the culture of recognition. Families often praise staff, and when they do we write that team member a thank you card letting them know that happened. We also have ‘yes I can’ cards that say, ‘thank you for having a yes I can attitude’ and people can write on the back of them thanking them for the teamwork they did. Those cards become nominations for team member of the month, and the honoree receives recognition, a reserved parking space, and a gift card. That’s how we make sure people are appreciated for who they are and what they do.”
Customer-Focused Excellence
Sumner Place’s mission of dignity in life plays a large role in the service it provides to residents and families: “There are so many examples of our staff going above and beyond. One program we partner with is Dream Weaver, which is similar to Make-A-Wish but for the elderly. Our life enrichment team has helped nearly every qualified resident fulfill a dream, from simple wishes like lunch with family to bigger experiences like going to a Husker football game for the first time. Every day there are instances of staff making a difference.”
Innovation
Sumner Place embraces and encourages change when it benefits the daily lives of residents: “Excellence is one of our core values, which means we never want to become stagnant. For example, our food council has been a great thing. Having the residents try different things and seeing if they like it, and if they like it, then we put it as one of our monthly dishes. Having those ‘what if’ conversations and those small but impactful innovations really seem to make a difference.”
Societal Contribution
Beyond the facility, Sumner Place builds strong connections with the local community. One highlight is their partnership with a nearby elementary school: “The kids come in at least once a month to do something with our residents. For example, in May, when they were out of school, they came and did sidewalk chalk art for all our residents and spent time with them outside.
“Sometimes the residents will pass out lemonade or ice cream as the kids are walking home from school. They've also done crafts together. It varies, but our residents really love to sit outside with a stand and hand stuff out to the kids. That's their favorite thing.”
Looking Forward
Looking ahead, Kaitlin and her team are focused on growth and preparation to achieve the Gold Quality Award: “I think for us to get to Gold we need to sit down, make sure our operational goals truly fit, and evaluate what it looks like to truly get us to where we need to be. I think we still have room to grow.
“Our plan is to have an outline of what we need for Gold and what that looks like. We want to make sure this year we have everything implemented and confirm that our team is on board and all on the same page. But that’s our plan, so in a year or so we'll be writing gold and submitting and hopefully receiving it.”
Final Advice
After achieving the Silver level in the Quality Award journey, Kaitlin shared some final advice encouraging others to take the first step: “Even if you submit and you don't get [the award], it at least gives you a report that can help you evaluate to move forward. Not applying is the worst thing you could do because you're not evaluating or moving forward, so my advice is try to write it. Even if you aren't ready to submit, you are at least in the process of doing it.
“As long as every building is trying to improve, trying to evaluate what they're doing, and have quality care, I think having that in the forefront with the Quality Awards is very impactful.”