Quality Improvement Program

Responsibilities

• Perform daily surveillance for hospital-associated infections
• Investigate outbreaks and clusters of infections at University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics
• Implement national infection control guidelines and standards to help prevent transmission of infections
• Present data and activities that improve the safety of the environment
• Assess trends, identify problems, design and implement specific interventions and quality improvement programs

Special Interests and Activities

• Infectious Diseases
• HIV/Tuberculosis
• Global Health
• Epidemiology

Contact

Phone: 1-319-384-8207
Address: C-516 General Hospital (GH)
Email: [email protected]

Responsibilities

• Work closely and collaboratively with management, analysts, and performance improvement specialists to advance data integration and reporting capabilities
• Support development of processes that automate data collection, data integration, and reporting
• Develop reporting functionality and integration with other systems

Memberships

• Project Management

Contact

Phone: 1-319-384-7069
Fax: 319-353-7043
Office Address: C-52-N General Hospital (GH)
Email: [email protected]

Responsibilities

• Facilitate and implement quality and operational improvement initiatives for organization-wide processes and projects to improve customer satisfaction levels and business productivity.
• Evaluate processes and outcomes of care and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Lead and support multi-disciplinary teams from problem identification through resolution.
• Utilize performance improvement methodologies such as Six Sigma, Lean, 5S, and Value Stream Mapping. Manage projects through entire life cycle within approved scope, schedule, and budget.
• Develop methods for data collection, collect and retrieve data, and access databases for decision making.  
• Educate University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics staff in performance measurement, analysis, and improvement processes and techniques.
• Develop processes to ensure quality, cost, and efficiency requirements are met.

Contact

Phone: 1-319-467-5668
Address: C 523 General Hospital (GH)
Email: [email protected]

Responsibilities

• Analyze and report quality measures and resource management utilization
• Evaluate processes and outcomes of care and identify opportunities for improvement
• Provide guidance for statistical reporting
• Provide benchmark data for hospital units and departments
• Assist with implementation and compliance reporting of recommended national healthcare quality standards
• Educate University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics staff in performance measurement, analysis, and improvement
• Facilitate performance improvement teams

Special Interests and Activities

• Advanced Practice Provider, professional interests
• Vice President, Iowa chapter of the National Association of Neonatal Nurses
• Member, Sigma Theta Tau, Gamma Chapter

Contact

Phone: 1-319-384-9593
Fax: 319-353-7043
Office Address: C-52-G General Hospital (GH)
Email: [email protected]

Responsibilities

• Coordination, administration, and maintenance of PSN incident reporting system
• Provide education to management and staff on patient safety, performance measurements, and performance improvement projects related to the hospital and their specific units
• Quality and Safety Liaison for the Non-Intensive Care Units,  Medical Surgical Services Division

Special Interests and Activities

• Neuroscience nursing
• Patient safety
• Staff education

Contact:

Phone: 1-319-353-7222
Office Address: C-52N General Hospital (GH)
Email: [email protected]

Responsibilities

• Provide facilitation and training on quality and process improvement efforts at all levels of the organization 
• Coach teams on optimal workplace design/layout functionality
• Conduct basic and advanced analyses to improve process, performance, and outcomes 
• Collaborate with other OE staff to identify and support emergent process needs within UI Hospitals & Clinics

Special Interests and Activities

• Lean/Six-Sigma
• Just Culture
• National Association for Healthcare Quality
• Iowa Special Olympics

Contact

Phone: 1-319-467-5668
Fax: 319-353-7043
Address: C-521-2 General Hospital (GH)
Email: [email protected]

Responsibilities

• Perform daily surveillance for hospital-associated infections
• Investigate outbreaks and clusters of infections at University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics
• Implement national infection control guidelines and standards to help prevent transmission of infections
• Present data and activities that improve the safety of the environment
• Assess trends; identify problems, design and implement specific interventions and quality improvement programs

Special Interests and Activities

• Hospital-associated infections
• CAUTI reduction and prevention
• Infection prevention issues related to hospital construction and renovation

Contact

Phone: 1-319-384-8929
Fax: 319-356-7093
Address: C-521 General Hospital (GH)
Email: [email protected]

Responsibilities

• Coordinating hospital-wide implementation of evidence-based practices related to JCAHO/CMS core measures and national quality and patient safety standards
• Assisting University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics faculty and staff in achieving performance target in quality and patient safety initiatives
• Providing real-time data collection on UI Hospitals & Clinics adherence to recommended evidence-based practices

Special Interests and Activities

• Fourteen years of private practice experience in clinical and anatomic pathology
• Training and experience with clinical health care quality improvement/management

Contact

Phone: 1-319-356-2981
Fax: 319-353-7043
Office Address: C-515-A General Hospital (GH)
Email: [email protected]

Responsibilities

• TAVR Registry Site Manager
• Assist with Virtual PICU Registry (VPS)
• Identify performance improvement opportunities based on registry data
• Serve as an educational resource on registry requirements, data elements, and registry reports

Contact

Phone: 1-319-384-8558
Fax: 319-353-7043
Office Address: C-52-F General Hospital (GH)
Email: [email protected]

Responsibilities

• Abstracting data for CathPCI Registry
• Registry site manager for CathPCI Registry
• Serving as an educational resource on registry requirements, data, reports, and identifying performance improvement
• Benchmarking national data with outcome and configurable reports

Contact

Phone: 1-319-467-5668
Fax: 319-353-7043
Office Address: C-521-2 General Hospital (GH)
Email: [email protected]

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with and assist clinicians, managers, department heads, and others to design, develop, and review reports in the Decision Support System
• Program variance tracking, indicator reports, and other ad hoc clinical report into Decision Support System
• Collaborate with DSS staff in Finance, Information Systems, Health Information Management, and other departments for the ongoing development and refinement of the structure and applications within the system
• Develop, review, interpret, and evaluate reports through the Decision Support System in response to requests from Administration and others
• Support other professional staff by creating excel templates and graphs, formatting documents, and database management
• Assist with Decision Support Training

Contact

Phone: 1-319-353-7188
Fax: 319-353-7043
Office Address: C-52-H General Hospital (GH)
Email: [email protected]

Responsibilities

• Provide leadership, direction, and expertise in the development, implementation, reporting, and evaluation of quality, safety, and performance improvement initiatives
• Collaborate with administration and health care professionals in the development of strategies and methodologies to evaluate processes and outcomes of care to identify opportunities for improvement
• Develop and maintain relationships with clinical and hospital departments to facilitate collaborative achievement of Clinical Quality, Safety and Performance Improvement (CQSPI) and University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics objectives
• Serve as advisor to the Chief Quality Officer on internal and external performance improvement activities in clinical areas related to safety, quality, and resource management
• Provide leadership and direction for the implementation and compliance reporting of recommended national health care quality and patient safety standards

Special Interests and Activities

• University of Iowa Museum of Art Members (since August 2013)
• University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC) Clinical Benchmarking Coordinator
• Kids First Board, Cedar Rapids, Iowa (since 2010)

Contact

Phone: 1-319-353-7463
Fax: 319-353-7043
Office Address: C-512-A General Hospital (GH)
Email: [email protected]

Responsibilities

• Collect, submit, interpret, and analyze the data of the Pediatric National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP)
• Collaborate with the pediatric surgeons to maintain Pediatric NSQIP database and provide actionable clinical information used for performance improvement
• Serve as educational resource on registry requirements and data reports
• Identify performance opportunities based on registry data

Special Interests and Activities

• Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society for Nursing
• American Nurses Association
• Infection Prevention
• Patient Safety
• Heart Disease Prevention
  • Presentation at UIHC HVC Grand Rounds
• Environmental/Rural Health

Contact

Fax: 319-353-7043
Office Address: C-52-H General Hospital (GH)
Email: [email protected]

Responsibilities

• Administrative support for Hospital Epidemiologist and the Infection Prevention team
• Administrative support for the Patient Safety Network
• Administrative support for the CQSPI team

Special Interests and Activities

• Microsoft Office and PSN
• EPIC

Awards

University of Iowa Outstanding Staff Award

Contact

Phone: 1-319-384-5146
Address: C-520 General Hospital (GH)
Email: [email protected]

Responsibilities

• Performs daily surveillance for hospital-associated infections
• Investigates outbreaks and clusters of infections at University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics
• Implements national infection control guidelines and standards to prevent transmission of infections
• Presents data and implements activities that improve patient and staff safety
• Assesses trends; identifies problems, designs and implements specific interventions and quality improvement programs

Special Interests and Activities

• Certified in Infection Prevention and Control
• Member of National APIC (Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology)
• Emergency Management and Bioemergency Preparedness
• Safety Education
• Employee Health Infection Prevention

Contact

Phone: 1-319-384-9030
Fax: 319-353-8687
Office Address: C-519 General Hospital (GH)
Email: [email protected]

Responsibilities

• Perform daily surveillance for hospital-associated infections
• Investigate outbreaks and clusters of infections at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics
• Implement national infection control guidelines and standards to help prevent transmission of infections
• Present data and activities that improve the safety of the environment
• Assess trends; identify problems, design and implement specific interventions and quality improvement programs

Contact

Phone: 1-319-384-9236
Fax: 319-356-7043
Office Address: C-518-1 General Hospital (GH)

Responsibilities

• Perform daily surveillance for hospital-associated infections
• Investigate outbreaks and clusters of infections at University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics
• Implement national infection control guidelines and standards to help prevent transmission of infections
• Present data and activities that improve the safety of the environment
• Assess trends, identify problems, and design and implement specific interventions and quality improvement programs

Special Interests and Activities

• Hospital-associated infections
• Device-related infections
• Communicable diseases
• Emerging infectious diseases
• Multi-drug resistant organisms

Contact

Phone: 1-319-384-5158
Fax: 319-353-8687
Office Address: C-520 General Hospital (GH)
Email: [email protected]

Responsibilities

• Collecting, submitting, interpreting, and analyzing the data of the Get With the Guideline-Stroke database
• Collecting and analyzing CSC complication data
• Collaborating with the Stroke Team to develop and initiate quality improvement initiatives to improve patient outcomes
• Providing interrater reliability of stroke core measure data

Awards

• 100 Great Nurses in Iowa (2010)

Committees

• Iowa Stroke Task Force
  • Secretary (2012-present)
• Iowa Stroke Coordinator Consortium
  • Vice President (2010-2012)
  • Secretary (2012-2014)
• SCRN Test Development Committee
  • Member (2012-present)
  • Co-Chair (2014-2015)
  • Chair (2016-2017)

Poster Presentations

• "Kiss for Improvement" Poster: AANN Conference (2015)
  • Authors: A. Overton, E. Rindels, E. Wynn and M. Gross
• Rural Stroke System Development and Patterns of Arrival poster presentation at International Stroke Conference ISC #4451 (2015)
  • Authors: E. Rindels, A. Overton, E. Leira, M. Mueller, B. Swift, G. Clabaugh, M. Nugent, J. Torner
• Developing a Stroke Coordinator Consortium: Past, Present and Future at International Stroke Conference (2014)
• Inter-Hospital Data: Triage and Transport Form Develop and Use Presented at the Coverdell National Conference (2013)
• International Stroke Conference: Stroke Community Education (2011)

Contact

Fax: 319-353-7043
Office Address: C-52-E General Hospital (GH)
Email: [email protected]

Responsibilities

• Analyze and report quality measures and resource management utilization
• Evaluate processes and outcomes of care and identify opportunities for improvement
• Provide guidance for statistical reporting
• Provide benchmark data for hospital units and departments
• Assist with implementation and compliance reporting of recommended national healthcare quality standards
• Educate University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics staff in performance measurement, analysis, and improvement
• Facilitate performance improvement teams

Professional Memberships

• American Organization of Nurse Executives
• Iowa Organization of Nurse Leaders
• Cardiac Vascular Nursing Board
• Mount Mercy University Nursing Program Advisory Board
• Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing
• American Heart and Stroke Associations
• American Association of Neuroscience Nurses
• American Psychiatric Nursing Association

Contact

Phone: 1-319-356-0882
Fax: 319-353-7043
Address: C-52-N General Hospital (GH)
Email: [email protected] 

Licensure

• Iowa Board of Nursing License
• Certifications/Training
• Cardiac Vascular Nursing Certification
• Lean Training
• Six Sigma Green Belt Training

Responsibilities

• Assist in the submission of publicly reported Core Measures
• Provide benchmark data for hospital units and departments pertaining to Core Measures
• Provide facilitation, training, and coordination of hospital-wide performance improvement projects, regarding Core Measures
• Assist with implementation and compliance reporting of recommended national healthcare quality standards
• Analyze and report quality measures and resource management utilization
• Evaluate processes and outcomes of care and identify opportunities for improvement
• Provide guidance for statistical reporting

Special Interests and Activities

• Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, Member
• American Society of Microbiology, Member
• Implementing performance improvement projects based on evidence-based practices
• Epidemiology of antibiotic-resistant infections

Contact

Fax: 319-353-7043
Office Address: C-52-J General Hospital (GH)
Email: [email protected]

Responsibilities

• Direct and coordinate all aspects of American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) registry functions including data collection, data submission, outcomes, report review and analysis, and contract management
• Identify performance improvement opportunities based on registry data
• Serve as an educational resource on registry requirements, data elements, and registry reports

Memberships

• American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology
• American Burn Association
• Safe Kids Coalition

Contact

Phone: 1-319-384-8558
Fax: 319-353-7043
Office Address: C-52-K General Hospital (GH)
Email: [email protected]

Responsibilities

• Facilitate and implement quality and operational improvement initiatives for organizational wide processes and projects to improve customer satisfaction levels and business productivity.
• Evaluate processes and outcomes of care and identify opportunities for improvement.
• Lead and support multi-disciplinary teams from problem identification through resolution.
• Utilize performance improvement methodologies such as Six Sigma, Lean, 5S, and Value Stream Mapping. Manage projects through entire life cycle within approved scope, schedule, and budget.
• Develop methods for data collection, collect and retrieve data, and access databases for decision making.  
• Educate University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics staff in performance measurement, analysis, and improvement processes and techniques.
• Develop processes to ensure quality, cost, and efficiency requirements are met.

Special Interests and Activities

• Project management
• Problem solving
• Process development
• Lean, Six Sigma, and Continuous Improvement

Contact

Phone: 1-319-467-5668
Office Address: C-521-2 General Hospital (GH)
Email: [email protected]

Responsibilities

• Collect, submit, interpret and analyze the data of Metabolic Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program (MBSAQIP)
• Collaborate with the metabolic and bariatric surgeons to maintain MBSAQIP databases and provide actionable clinical information used for performance improvement
• Serve as educational resource on registry requirements, data reports
• Identify performance opportunities based on registry data

Special Interests and Activities

• American Nurses Association
• Sigma Theta Tau International
• National Association for Healthcare Quality
• NAMI

Contact

Phone: 1-319-363-6381
Fax: 319-353-7043
Office Address: 1567 John W. Colloton Pavilion (JCP)
Email: [email protected]

Responsibilities

• Work closely and collaboratively with management, analysts, and performance improvement specialists to advance data integration and reporting capabilities
• Support development of processes that automate data collection, data integration, and reporting
• Develop reporting functionality and integration with other systems

Memberships

• Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society
• Project Management Institute

Contact

Phone: 1-319-356-4344
Fax: 319-353-7043
Office Address: C-521-1 General Hospital (GH)
Email: [email protected]

Responsibilities

• Collecting and submitting data to the American College of Surgeon's National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP)
• Assist in the interpretation of data and the development of quality improvement initiatives based on the NSQIP data

Awards

• Iowa 100 Great Nurses (2012)

Contact

Phone: 1-319-353-6079
Fax: 319-353-7043
Office Address: C-518-1 General Hospital (GH)
Email: [email protected]

Responsibilities:

• Manage and coordinate all aspects of the American Heart Association’s Code Blue and Rapid Response Team Registry, including data collection, data submission, outcomes, report review and analysis.
• Identify performance improvement opportunities based on the registry data
• Serve as an educator resource on the registry requirements, data elements, and registry reports.

Contact:

Phone: 1-319-356-2704
Fax: 319-353-7043
Office Address: C-52F General Hospital (GH)
Email: [email protected]