FARMINGTON — Farmington resident Charles Murray was presented the Leadership Award for his service to the community at the annual meeting of Franklin Community Health Network (FCHN).

Corporators representing towns in the FCHN service area attend the session to receive an annual report and hear presentations regarding the year’s accomplishments and plans for the future.

Rebecca Ryder, FCHN president, reported that a focus on patient safety remains a priority for the organization. “We will continue initiatives with an emphasis on a ‘zero-defect’ approach to our quality program monitoring and process improvement initiatives,” she said.

In her president’s report Ryder added, “Over the past year, we have had the opportunity to celebrate many successes. We celebrated a very successful Joint Commission Survey, a tribute to the hard work and dedication of our staff and clinicians. We celebrated being named among the nation’s ‘most wired’ hospitals, again, an honor that speaks to the dedication of our staff and to the strategic vision of our board. We celebrated bringing the first medical students to campus as one of the rural training sites for the Maine Medical Center/Tufts University ‘Health Innovator Award’ recipient in Maine for our approach to employee health and wellness. And finally, we celebrated the ground-breaking for a long awaited, new medical arts center in Livermore Falls.”

Joseph Bujold, board chairman offered a “tip of the hat” to Ryder and her team for a successful year and their work in planning for the future.

Dr. Robert O’Reilly, medical staff president, in his address, acknowledged, “The digital world is the cornerstone of a lot of new changes. Electronic medical records unify all FCHN associated practices for information sharing, improve disease management and documentation and minimize medication errors.”

Ryder presented Charles Murray with a proclamation from the board of directors. Murray was cited for his service on the Farmington planning board and board of selectmen. Murray also served as chairman of the Franklin Memorial Hospital board and worked to raise the funds for a major hospital expansion and renovation in 2001, and later for the Franklin Health Medical Arts Center.

He remains on the hospital’s finance and investment committees. Many additional community appointments were also mentioned, including being a founding board member of the Greater Franklin Development Corp.

As final items, corporators unanimously approved changes to the FCHN bylaws and reappointed Carol Timberlake and Peter Judkins to three-year terms to the board of directors and appointed Paul Soucie to fill the term vacated by Tom Saviello.

The year’s highlights are featured in the network’s 2010/2011 annual report. To receive a report, contact Jill Gray in the community relations office at 779-2555 or 1-800-398-6031, ext. 2555.

Franklin Community Health Network includes Franklin Memorial Hospital, Franklin Health, Evergreen Behavioral Services, NorthStar and the Healthy Community Coalition.