Ginger Baker, ,MBA, LBBP, MS, MT (AAB), ACHE

Ginger Baker, LBBP, MBA, MS, MT (AAB), practices in the healthcare areas of high reliability, operational excellence and laboratory operations. She focuses on the highest levels of quality, safety and fiscal operations in her current role of System Director of Operational Excellence with Appalachian Regional Healthcare.

Ginger A Baker began her career in the practice of laboratory medicine in the Appalachian region of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee. Desiring greater exposure to different types of healthcare environments and practices, Baker spent a decade in an agency position. This afforded her the opportunity to work with Mayo Clinic, Dartmouth-Hitchcock, OHSU, Kaiser Permeate, Providence Health and Services and others. In that course of that decade she practiced in facilities from rural 5 bed critical access hospitals to large academic organizations. Through these experiences, Baker saw the opportunity to bring the ISO continuous improvement practices of laboratory medicine to healthcare practice. This led her to pursue education in medical geography, quality and project management where she predicted the U.S. Ebola outbreak and recommend the addition of two key screening questions; “Have you and family or close friends traveled outside of the community in the last 14 days?”, and "Has anyone in you or anyone in your inner circle traveled outside of the U.S. in the last month?"

Stepping outside of her laboratory roots, Baker completed her MBA and several certifications in operational excellence theories, such as lean, six sigma, high reliability, vital smarts, AIM communication while leading the state of Alaska's high reliability program. Having successfully improved patient care teamwork in Alaska, she joined ARH to apply those skills to improving healthcare practices in Appalachia as the System Director of Operational Excellence for Appalachian Regional Healthcare.

Her writing and speaking on the topics related to laboratory medicine, operational excellence and continuous improvement can be found in multiple industry publication and associated with many leading healthcare vendors. In each, she promotes inclusion of all stakeholders, creative approach to problem solving and a willingness to always look for opportunities to improve.