For 30 years, the AHCA/NCAL National Quality Award Program has challenged providers to strengthen systems, improve outcomes, and pursue excellence across long term and post-acute care. Since its establishment in 1996, the program has helped organizations at every stage of the quality journey build stronger processes rooted in continuous improvement.

Behind every application reviewed, every feedback report delivered, and every award recommended is a dedicated group of professionals who make the program possible: the National Quality Award examiners.

This group of more than 200 individuals volunteers their time and expertise over the course of several months to carefully review applications, assess performance against the Baldrige Performance Excellence criteria, and provide meaningful feedback that helps providers improve. For many, serving as an examiner is more than a volunteer experience—it is a professional development and leadership opportunity as well as a chance to help elevate the entire profession.

The examiner program is rigorous. Examiners complete training, work in teams, review multiple applications, participate in meetings and discussions, and produce detailed feedback reports for each applicant. For the Silver and Gold awards, teams are comprised of professionals from across the country—and even the world—with a range of backgrounds in long term care, quality improvement, operations, and leadership. Team leaders are selected based on experience and guide the review process, while Gold judges—a smaller panel of highly experienced experts—determine which applicants advance to site visits and ultimately achieve the Gold award.

The work is substantial, often spanning six months, but participants consistently describe the experience as one of the most valuable learning opportunities of their careers. Some even compare it to a mini-MBA program because of the depth of learning involved.

As AHCA/NCAL celebrates the 30-year anniversary of the National Quality Award Program, three long-time examiners offer a powerful view into what it means to be an examiner and what it offers beyond being an essential part of the program’s success.

From Pilot Program to Pipeline

For Silver examiner team leader Nicolette Reilly, Senior Vice President of Quality at the Oregon Health Care Association, the value of the examiner experience is clear.

“Being part of this program has made me focus more on the quality journey not just for my organization, but in my own professional growth as well,” Reilly said. “That was training that I would have paid thousands and thousands of dollars for.”

Reilly, who has served as an examiner for nearly two decades, helped create an innovative pipeline for new examiners in Oregon. Recognizing that first-year examiners often need additional support, she launched a pilot program that brings together first-time examiners for a hands-on, in-person training. What began as one team has now expanded into multiple teams and introduced more than 14 new examiners to the program.
“We created a space where first-year examiners could learn, ask questions, and grow together,” Reilly said. “It’s grown into something special—we’re building a pipeline of quality leaders.”

The effort created a ripple effect. Participants return to their organizations with a stronger grasp of quality improvement, share best practices, and often become champions for the National Quality Award Program within their companies and across the state.

Reilly also emphasized the professional network that comes with being an examiner. Because examiners work in teams made up of leaders from across the country and from different disciplines, the experience creates valuable relationships and broadens participants’ understanding of the profession. 

“You build relationships across the country—people you can call and say, ‘What do you think about this?’” she said. “There’s this incredible sharing of ideas, best practices, and real solutions. You end up with an entire network of people focused on getting better.”

In the end, Reilly’s efforts not only support examiners but also help to shape the future of quality in long term care.

Reaching the Next Generation

For Samantha Vosloo, Senior Director of Value-Based Care at PointClickCare and a Silver examiner team leader for more than a decade, the program has offered a front-row seat to what high-performing organizations look like in practice.

Vosloo first became involved in the National Quality Award Program while working as an administrator-in-training and helping write a Silver Award application. After seeing firsthand how the process strengthened organizations, she became an examiner and never looked back.

“What I love about being an examiner is that you get an inside peek into these high-performing organizations and see what process excellence looks like,” Vosloo said. “I was able to take those key learnings and bring them back into my building.”

That perspective shaped her leadership early in her career and continues to influence her work today. She credits the program with helping her better understand continuous improvement, develop stronger management skills, and learn how to identify issues and bring resolution.

“What Baldrige and the Quality Award teaches us to do is examine an issue and determine if that issue was a people issue or a process issue,” she said. “A lot of times, if we really take a step back, we find it was never a people issue—it was a process issue. That makes us better leaders.”

Vosloo is also helping build the next generation of Quality Award examiners. She has spearheaded a new partnership with the University of South Florida, where students in the university’s health care administration program learn the Baldrige framework in class and are then placed on Silver Award examiner teams to apply what they learned in real time.

She hopes that more future administrators enter the field already understanding what high performance, process improvement, and organizational excellence look like.

“Through this partnership, we’re helping them build those muscles before they even get out there into their career,” Vosloo said. “We’re graduating high-performing leaders who already know what it takes to run a good organization.”

The partnership currently has three students participating in the program.

A Full-Circle Quality Journey

Few people have seen the National Quality Award Program from as many angles as Renee Ridling, Executive Director of Gingerbread House, Inc. Over the years, Ridling has engaged with the program at nearly every level—as an applicant, award recipient, Silver examiner, Gold examiner, team leader, independent examiner, and now she has joined the elite group of eight Quality Award judges. A Gold Quality Award recipient herself, she has spent 17 years in the examiner program and says the experience shaped her both personally and professionally.

“We tell applicants all the time that quality is a journey,” Ridling said. “For myself, going from examiner through the process to judge has been a personal journey in learning not just about the Quality Award Program, but also about the concept of quality improvement and getting better.”

In 2014, Ridling became the first provider in Missouri to earn the Gold Award, a milestone she still carries with pride. In fact, she believes that one of the most meaningful parts of her examiner work has been helping other facilities achieve the same kind of progress.

“It’s fulfilling to have that impact—to know that something I said or something I shared in a feedback report may help another facility get to the next level,” she said. “Every year, when I watch the facilities I helped achieve their award, it’s very moving and very rewarding.”

Like many examiners, Ridling acknowledges that the program requires a significant investment of time, especially during the height of review season, but she is quick to emphasize that the investment is worth it.

“If you want to become better at your job…you won’t find a better way to become better at what you do,” she said. “This program helped me grow a lot.”

Reflecting on how far the journey has taken her, Ridling added, “When I wrote that first application in 2008, I had no idea that in 2026 I would be a judge for this program. I was just a facility in small-town Missouri. It’s one of the best learning experiences that you will ever have.”

Celebrating 30 Years 

As the National Quality Award Program celebrates 30 years, the examiner community remains one of its greatest strengths. Examiners bring expertise, champions, and passion to the Quality Award journey. They also bring a commitment to helping others improve.

For those considering becoming an examiner, the message from these longtime leaders is simple: do it! It is demanding and it takes time, but the return—for the individual, for their organization, and for long term care—is invaluable.

As the National Quality Award Program looks ahead to its next 30 years, it is the people behind it who will carry it forward and define its future.

Cristina Walls is senior manager, public affairs at the American Health Care Association/National Center for Assisted Living.