Her Story
About Lacey
Lacey Frei, BSHA, RDMS (BR), R.T. (R)(ARRT), is an accomplished healthcare leader with more than 21 years of progressive clinical and operational experience in rural and critical access healthcare. Currently serving as Senior Director of Ancillary Clinical Services at Whitman Hospital & Medical Clinics, she oversees a broad portfolio of services while driving operational excellence, service line growth, regulatory compliance, and patient-centered care. Throughout her career, Lacey has successfully aligned clinical operations, technology, and analytics to improve efficiency, expand patient access, and support organizational growth in resource-constrained healthcare environments.
Lacey began her healthcare journey in medical imaging, drawn to the field by its continual technological innovation and its ability to improve patient outcomes. From the era of film processing and darkrooms to today’s advanced digital imaging technologies, she has witnessed—and helped lead—significant transformation within healthcare. Her clinical experience as a radiologic technologist and sonographer provided a strong foundation for her transition into leadership, where she developed a passion for improving systems, enhancing the patient experience, and supporting healthcare teams in delivering exceptional care.
Known for her collaborative leadership style, Lacey is deeply committed to mentoring and developing future healthcare leaders. She believes that investing in people directly contributes to better patient outcomes, particularly in rural healthcare settings where teamwork, trust, and adaptability are essential. Whether guiding leaders through complex challenges, fostering staff engagement, or championing student education and workforce development, Lacey is dedicated to creating environments where individuals feel supported, empowered, and equipped to succeed. Her leadership philosophy centers on accountability, recognition, continuous improvement, and building strong teams that thrive together.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Lacey
01What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Funding is a huge challenge right now, especially in rural healthcare. We're experiencing a lot of funding issues, and there's just a lot of changes right now happening in healthcare. Those funding and changes are going to start limiting access for patients. That's really difficult, working within our budget constraints and the reduction of funding from these programs, but still be able to offer the same access to patients in our community that we've always continued to do. Another challenge is having the workforce, not having the nurses or the technologists wanting to come to a rural healthcare community to provide that service. We don't pay as much as a large health system, so trying to be competitive and be attractive to potential members of the team has been a difficulty. Another thing that's coming, and it's like a ready or not, is AI, and how AI is affecting especially imaging, because it's so innovative, and AI is expensive. If we don't get on board, we're going to be left behind, because that is where everything is moving, including healthcare. Just having the conversations and trying to give them the idea of what the future looks like, and then having the funds to back it up, those are the biggest challenges right now.
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