SSM Health Care Leader Receives Baldrige Foundation Award

At a ceremony during the Baldrige Program's Quest for Excellence Conference® in Baltimore, Sister Mary Jean Ryan, board chair of SSM Health Care (SSMHC), received the Harry S. Hertz Leadership Award. As former president and CEO of SSM Health Care, Sister Mary Jean led the St. Louis-based organization to become the first health care organization to receive a Baldrige Award in 2002.

Baldrige Foundation Board Chair George Benson said that the leadership award—named for the director emeritus of the Baldrige Program who retired last year—was well-deserved by Sister Mary Jean. "During her 25 year tenure at SSMHC, Sister Mary Jean has demonstrated visionary leadership that has propelled the health care system to be one of the finest in the nation," Benson said.

The Harry S. Hertz Leadership Award is given annually by the Baldrige Foundation to the person who best demonstrates leadership behaviors consistent with the core values of the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. Those core values are visionary leadership, customer-focused excellence, organizational and personal learning, valuing workforce members and partners, agility, managing for innovation, management by fact, societal responsibility, focus on results and creating value, and a systems perspective.

For more information on the award, see the Baldrige Foundation's Web site at http://www.baldrigepe.org/foundation/.