Current and Past Chairs of Baldrige Board Honored for Health Care Leadership

The American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) has selected Rulon Stacey, current chair of the Baldrige Performance Excellence Program’s Board of Overseers, to receive its 2017 Gold Medal Award, the professional society’s highest annual honor. Recipients of the ACHE Gold Medal Award are “outstanding leaders who have made significant contributions to the healthcare profession,” according to ACHE.

Stacey has been an ACHE Fellow and in 2011 was installed as ACHE Chair. His accomplishments as a health care executive include leading Poudre Valley Health System (now part of University of Colorado Health) to receive a Baldrige Award in 2008. He is now employed as a managing director for Navigant Consulting, Inc.

Thomas Dolan, a former chair of the Baldrige overseers’ board, also recently received a highly prestigious honor in the health care industry. Dolan was inducted into the 2017 Health Care Hall of Fame of Modern Healthcare. This recognition honors individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the health care industry throughout their professional tenure, according to the publication.

Stacey’s and Dolan’s 2017 honors follow other high-profile accolades for U.S. health care leaders in recent years that have been involved with the Baldrige Program. The Baldrige Excellence Framework (including the Health Care Criteria for Performance Excellence) has been credited with significant benefits for health care organizations that adopt it as a leadership and performance management framework. The 2017–2018 Baldrige Excellence Framework for health care is now available on the Baldrige Program’s website.