CHICAGO, IL (January 2026)—Rewiring Excellence: Hardwired to Rewired, Second Edition—written by Quint Studer and Dan Collard—has received the 2026 James A. Hamilton Award given by the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE). It will be presented at the ACHE 2026 Congress on Healthcare Leadership, to be held March 2-4 in Houston, Texas.
The award is given yearly to the author(s) of a management or healthcare book judged outstanding by ACHE’s Book of the Year Committee. Created in 1958, the award is underwritten by the Alumni Association of the Graduate Program in Healthcare Administration of the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, in honor of the late James A. Hamilton, FACHE, the program’s founder and course director between 1946 and 1966, and ACHE’s 1939-1940 chairman.
The selection committee considers books that (among other criteria) have meaning to the field of healthcare management; make a valuable contribution to the literature; and demonstrate enduring quality, originality, reliability of approach, and significance to healthcare management as a discipline.
“We are honored to receive this award,” says Quint Studer, who along with Dan Collard cofounded Healthcare Plus Solutions Group® (HPSG). “It’s great to know our ‘rewiring’ message resonates with the professional community represented by ACHE. Our hope is that this recognition inspires more leaders to make changes that result in organizations where patients want to receive care and employees want to stay.”
Rewiring Excellence makes the case for perpetually rethinking certain processes and leader behaviors that had previously been hardwired into organizations—tactics like rounding as well as familiar approaches in areas like leader development, employee well-being, retention, and more.
“Healthcare has undergone profound changes over the past few decades,” says Collard. “It’s a different world now, compared to even five years ago. And when you consider that a high percentage of leaders are new to their role—and that today’s generation of talent has such different needs and expectations—it’s clear why some of the older ways of doing things might not work anymore.
“We’re grateful to be affiliated with ACHE,” adds Collard. “They have long stood for thoughtful leadership, lifelong learning, and continuous adaptation. Those values dovetail with the premise of Rewiring Excellence—that leadership is never finished, and that the best organizations are willing to revisit, refine, and rewire how they lead in response to a changing world.”
