Yesterday, Monday December 21st, 2009, the first ever SAVE Award was presented to Nancy of Grand Valley, Colorado by President Obama. The SAVE (Securing Americans Value and Efficiency) Award was apart of a contest of federal employees who were asked to come up with different ideas for the improvement of government efficiency.Nancy Fichtner’s idea was the best of 38,000 proposals that came in. She works at the VA Hospital in Grand Junction, Colorado. It was her idea to allow veterans to use the medicine they have been using instead of putting it to waste.
Currently, the unused medicine just gets thrown away, and then the patients just have the fill new prescriptions when they get home. While the concept is simple, it will be implemented and eliminate waste as well as lead to cost-savings and efficiency.
In the President’s speech regarding the SAVE Award winner, he said, “Of course, Nancy’s proposal was just one of many great ideas that came to us. We’ve already begun to implement a host of suggestions made through the SAVE content. And while promoting electronic paystubs or scheduling Social Security appointments online or pre-purposing unused government supplies may not be the most glamorous reforms in history, when taking together, these small changes can add up; they add up to a transformation of how government works.â€
Obama also stated how the SAVE Award will become an annual event.
