ALEXANDRIA, VA—The American College of Health Care Administrators named Norma Jean Morgan, CNHA, FACHCA, administrator of Effingham Extended Care Facility in Springfield as a 2015 recipient of the ACHCA Eli Pick Facility Leadership Award. The award, named in memory of visionary ACHCA member Eli Pick, recognizes administrators whose teams have achieved dimensions of organizational quality that few others have been able to reach. Two hundred and fifty-seven administrators were awarded leadership awards nationally.

Morgan was one of 227 receipts who received the Eli Pick Facility Leadership Award with virtual recognition. This award recognizes the administrator of record who provided leadership throughout the award year. Eligibility for this award is based on three years of skilled nursing facility survey data, including the health, fire (life safety), and complaint surveys, as well as top quartile performance on designated quality measures. The criteria also included an 80 percent or greater facility occupancy and a three-year avoidance of a special focus facility status.

“Advancing leadership excellence is at the core of our mission,” said Marianna Grachek, president and chief executive officer of ACHCA. “There is a close relationship between facility leadership and quality outcomes-and, ultimately, between quality care and operational success.”