CHICAGO – July 12, 2011 – Nearly 30 clinical and administrative leaders, including two individuals from outside the United States, have been selected to participate in the 10th class of the AHA-NPSF Comprehensive Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship. The Fellowship is an intensive, yearlong professional development program for senior practitioners looking to increase their capacity to lead patient safety improvement initiatives and accelerate positive change in their organizations. The program is one of the nation’s foremost leadership development programs in patient safety.

“The accelerating pace of delivery system transformation for greater quality and efficiency makes a focus on patient safety improvement absolutely paramount for providers,” said Maulik S. Joshi, DrPH, president of the Health Research & Educational Trust (HRET) and senior vice president of research for the American Hospital Association (AHA). “This redesigned fellowship gives health care leaders the tools, the experience and the network they need to lead patient safety improvement initiatives in their organizations and be at the forefront in the rapidly changing environment.”

“The Comprehensive Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship is a wonderful opportunity for health care leaders who are committed to the delivery of safe, high-quality care,” said Diane C. Pinakiewicz, president, National Patient Safety Foundation. “The program provides the fellows with deep knowledge of the patient safety discipline and its associated science, competencies and leadership imperatives. The experience is rich, as are the relationships and networks that fellows develop in the process.”

In the course of one year, fellows participate in a series of learning retreats and webinars, and they design and implement an Action Learning Project with the goal of improving processes and spreading evidence-based safety practices that lead to better outcomes and performance within their organizations.
The fellowship activities for this new class begin this month and continue through May 2012.

Among the Action Learning Projects planned by the 2011–2012 fellows are:

• A fellow from a large academic medical center in the Midwest will be developing a comprehensive and optimized approach to medication reconciliation.
• A fellow at a community hospital in the East will be redeveloping the hospital’s peer review process in order to foster a culture of safety among the medical staff.
• A team of fellows at a health system in the Pacific Northwest will focus on decreasing unnecessary repeat radiology examinations by improving physicians’ access to examinations done outside the organization.
• Working with a local university, a fellow at a small rural hospital in the Northeast is designing and deploying a new process for reporting and analyzing safety incidents.
• A fellow at a large health system will be developing a systemwide patient safety scorecard to enable leaders to track and analyze data from a variety of sources and help identify appropriate strategies for improvement.

The AHA-NPSF Comprehensive Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship is sponsored by the American Hospital Association and the National Patient Safety Foundation, in partnership with the Health Research & Educational Trust, Health Forum, the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management, the American Organization of Nurse Executives, and the Society of Hospital Medicine.

For more information or to nominate a colleague for future programs, contact the fellowship office at (312) 422-2933. Or visit www.ahafellowships.org for additional details.

About AHA
The AHA is a not-for-profit association of health care provider organizations and individuals that are committed to the improvement of health in their communities. The AHA is the national advocate for its members, which includes more than 5,000 member hospitals, health systems and other health care organizations, and 38,000 individual members. Founded in 1898, the AHA provides education for health care leaders and is a source of information on health care issues and trends.

About NPSF
The National Patient Safety Foundation® (NPSF) has been pursuing one mission since its founding in 1997—to improve the safety of care provided to patients. As a central voice for patient safety, NPSF is committed to a collaborative, inclusive, multistakeholder approach in all that it does. NPSF is an independent, not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization. To learn more about the work of the National Patient Safety Foundation, please visit www.npsf.org.

 

American Hospital Association/National Patient Safety Foundation Comprehensive Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship 2011—2012 Class

 

Helga Brake, PharmD, CPHQ Patient Safety Leader Northwestern Memorial Hospital Chicago, IL     Daniel Brancato, BS RT(T) Radiation Oncology Supervisor The Valley Health System Paramus, NJ  Pamela Bristol, RN, CNM Regional Director of Quality Center for Healthcare Improvement PeaceHealth Springfield, OR      Sorin J. Brull, MD, FCARCSI (Hon) Professor of Anesthesiology Mayo Clinic College of Medicine Jacksonville, FL  Chris Clarke, RN Sr. Vice President, Clinical Services and  Tennessee Center for Patient Safety Tennessee Hospital Association Nashville, TN   Margaret Cousart, RN Patient Safety Director Tift Regional Medical Center Tifton, GA   Audwin Garcia, MD Physician Henry Ford Hospital Detroit, MI   William Gibson, MD General Surgeon Premier Surgical Associates Knoxville, TN   Kenneth Grubbs, MBA, RN Assistant Vice President, Programs National Patient Safety Foundation Boston, MA   Andrea Halliday, MD Patient Safety Officer PeaceHealth Springfield, OR   Karen Hemeon, RN, MN Manager, Interventional Radiology Virginia Mason Medical Center Seattle, WA   Adele Hodlin, RN, MS, CPHQ Assistant Vice President for Quality and  Risk Adirondack Medical Center Saranac Lake, NY    Ivan Hsia, MD Consultant Anesthesiologist Hotel Dieu Grace Hospital Windsor, Ontario Canada   Wanda Hughes, RN, MSN, PhD Director, Quality and Patient Safety Baton Rouge General Medical Center Baton Rouge, LA   Jennifer Kadis, MSN, RN, CPAN Program Director, Crew Resource  Management Memorial Healthcare System Hollywood, FL

Robert Kenney, MD Nephrologist; Medical Director of Quality Baton Rouge General Medical Center Baton Rouge, LA      Dawna Kramer, MD Director of Quality in Radiology Virginia Mason Medical Center Seattle, WA  Barbara Martin, RN, MBA, CCRN Quality Consultant Vanderbilt University Medical Center Nashville, TN  Diane Mulholland, RN, MS Director of Medical and Surgical Services,  Neurophysiology and Stroke Center Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center Hartford, CT   Kathleen Pfleghaar, MD Staff Perinatologist Allina Hospitals & Clinics Minneapolis, MN   Barbara Olson, MS, RN Director, Patient Safety, Clinical Services  Group HCA Nashville, TN   Mitchell Rubinstein, MD Vice President, Medical Affairs The Valley Hospital Ridgewood, NJ   Wesley Self, MD Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Nashville, TN   David Shapiro, MD Associate Director, Trauma and Critical  Care Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center Hartford, CT   Michelle Smith, PharmD Director, Clinical Quality Improvement Hospital Sisters Health System Springfield, IL   Carrie Tuskey, MHA Director, Patient Safety and Risk  Management Henry Ford Health System Detroit, MI   Robert Vautrain, MD, MS Vice President, Chief Quality Officer Hospital Sisters Health System Springfield, IL   John Weigelt, MD Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs Froedtert Memorial Lutheran  Hospital/Medical College of Wisconsin Milwaukee, WI   Shorouq Zakariya, MHRM Risk Management Specialist King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center Quality Management Department Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

 

For more information contact:

Matt Fenwick
American Hospital Association
312-422-2820
mfenwick@aha.org

Patricia McTiernan
NPSF (617)391-9922
pmctiernan@npsf.org