AMS were delighted to receive Minister Tony Ryall at their Albany offices last week.  The Minster came to present the Inaugural AMS Award for Innovation in Health Payroll, which was won by Nelson Marlborough DHB.   Sue Lockhart, NMDHB Payroll Manager received the award and the event was attended by other DHBs, including Auckland, Waikato, Northland, Hawkes Bay and Health Alliance.

NMDHB won the award for their successful project which streamlined their pay-run.  They previously had a ‘split’ fortnightly pay-run, paying half their employees each week.  Due to efficiencies gain by their automated solution they were able to merge this into a single fortnightly pay-run.  Through generating resource savings, this changed the way their Payroll office operated.  On receiving the Award, Sue acknowledged her team, and talked about the benefits they achieved, saying because the team now had a week between pay cycles they were free to focus on initiatives that added further value to the DHB.  After the presentation Sue said “Thanks AMS for the award and recognition. It was very much a team effort and the thanks really goes to all the Payroll team who were involved. It was great to have Minister Ryall present the award.”

Noel Reid, AMS' CEO, said “I am delighted that we are able to host this event and recognise Payroll Departments that are delivering positive outcomes for their DHBs.  It is also a great opportunity to enable the DHB payroll employees to meet together and share information.”