Catherine Carson Email & Phone Number

California, United States

April-May 2022 provided a High Reliability Workplan for the Tanner Health System, a 5-hospital nonprofit health system in west Georgia and east Alabama that included the fundamentals for an HRO Transformation; harm measurement using SSER, Just culture, supporting and improving adverse event reporting, a safety dashboard, safety huddles, leader skills, and a process for incorporating best practices. Engagement completed May 2022.

Oregon, United States

Supported a 3-hospital acute care system in redevelopment of a quality and performance improvement structure that is data-driven and fully compliant with CMS Conditions of Participations

Palo Alto, California, United States

In this contract consultant role, supported the Regulatory Affairs Department within the Division of Quality, Safety and Risk filling the responsibilities for 2 vacant positions. Prepared survey binders for delayed GAHC survey, planned and delivered 2 mock surveys with contracted JCR consultant, completed TJC system survey application, facilitated system-wide Joint Commission Intracycle Monitoring and was responsible for reporting all adverse events to CDPH. In addition, assisted with conducting CDPH on-site investigations. Prepared standard work templates for all job duties and participated in orientation of 2 new quality specialists hired in August.

Mountain View And Los Gatos, California

Provided leadership and oversight for the hospitals in clinical quality improvement, risk management, clinical documentation integrity, accreditation and regulatory compliance, infection prevention, patient safety and clinical data variation and analysis. Continually worked to develop a culture of safety and organizational effectiveness while promoting evidence-based and patient-centered care. Since arriving at El Camino Health, moved the acute hospitals to a CMS 5-Start rating as of January 2020 and January 2021, achieved Leapfrog Safety Scores of A, and was recognized as an IBM Watson Top 100 Hospital in the Spring of 2021.

Palm Springs, Ca

Oversight in the areas of Performance Improvement, Peer Review, Patient Relations, Regulatory Compliance, Clinical Quality, Patient Safety and Risk Management and day-to-day operations of the Quality Services Department at Desert Regional Medical Center.

Providing consultation services to healthcare providers to improve the quality of clinical care, reduce harm to patients, improve hospital operations and throughput, and the application of information technology.

In partnership with the Vice President, Quality provide leadership to Daughters of Charity Health System on the implementation, review, and revision of the DCHS Quality and Patient Safety Strategy. Assisted each Local Health Ministry’s CEO and Senior Leaders to develop and understand the system goals around safe and quality healthcare, and to embrace a culture of “always” in providing excellent service to patients. Initiated system wide efforts to address all clinical measures in a concurrent approach, and facilitated clinical teams to address VTE and Surgical Care Improvement in the patient’s journey through the health system. 2012 focus was improving and sustaining Appropriate Care compliance scores with goals of 100% “perfect care” and in raising the importance of the goal to prevent Harm to patients with goals of zero harm for 6 areas of harm. Served as the clinical liaison for the DCHS System IT Electronic Health Record development and implementation, focusing on building evidence-based clinical care into the automated system. Provided education to hospitals and teams about changes in health care financing, incentives, and penalties including the Value-Based Purchasing system and Partnership for Patients. Used Premier’s Informatic tools and modules to understand clinical outcomes and identify opportunities for improvement. Served as the System liaison for Premier’s Hospital Engagement Network with the CMS Partnership for Patients Initiative, and with Premier’s QUEST Collaborative. Coordinated accreditation services across the system and implemented a software module to standardize and meet medical staff OPPE requirements. Provided consultation and in depth review of processes and departments as requested by hospital and system leadership. Implemented system wide intranet sites for all Clinical Performance Reports, Accreditation best practices and communication of survey results, and Quality & Patient Safety Tools and Resources.

Served as the lead issue manager for HASC quality and patient safety programs and initiatives. Worked collaboratively with 185 member hospitals to ensure that quality of care and patient safety are top priorities in the hospital community. Serves as a hospital advocate with the California Hospital Assessment and Reporting Task Force (CHART), leads the Southern California Patient Safety Collaborative, the statewide quality leader listserv and the statewide nursing executive listserv, and is a member of the California Hospital Quality Committee, CHA Joint Accreditation and Licensing Committee, CHA Medication Safety Committee, the California Hospital Patient Safety Organization (CHPSO) and the CHART New Measure Committee. Through this position, HASC provides education and leadership to its member hospitals in making quality patient care and safety a major priority. Developed and led the Southern California Patient Safety Collaborative with 102 hospitals, covering 3 major tracks of work including HAIs, & Sepsis, Perinatal Safety, and Readmissions and the Continuum of Care.

As a "C2Q" consultant with Tenet Healthcare, my role was to rapidly implement successful strategies to improve quality and patient safety by working with the hospital staff to make changes in work processes, roles, and policies and to operationalize those improvements and create sustainability before the team moved onto another hospital. The role included education, mentoring, coaching, and implementation.

Catherine provided broad-based clinical expertise to support the President and CMO in the development of new programs and software applications to continue Quantros’ success in delivering real-time, web-based solutions for the healthcare industry. She also coordinated marketing activity and published articles on the use of data in healthcare performance improvement. Together with Dr. Sanjaya Kumar, she produced two monographs for AHA hospital CEO’s and Trustees on understanding patient safety/quality and how to develop reports for boards of directors. Acting as the company liaison with the Joint Commission and other regulatory agencies, she planned for verification of core measure sets and developed an accreditation and compliance application that serves as a tool for continued survey readiness.

Catherine was the Director of Performance Improvement with VHA West Coast for six years, where she provided expertise and education around all clinically focused programs and services. Responsibilities included developing relationships with clinical staff of 115 VHA West Coast member hospitals and delivering programs and seminars for clinical specialty groups. Also conducted region-wide patient care studies. Provided education, training, and support of member hospitals participating in a Virtual System Survey program that included mock surveys, educational seminars, conferences, individual hospital consulting visits, and support as survey advocate during hospital Joint Commission surveys. Served as senior leadership contact to assigned member hospitals to customize services provided by VHA West Coast and develop customized work plan that matched hospital’s strategic plan.

Managed a hospital division of eight departments with 200 staff and cumulative budgets of $3,000,000. Departments included medical records, transcription, social services, employee assistance, resource utilization, medical office leasing, patient satisfaction, and quality management. Held responsibility for accreditation and licensure for all accredited agencies affiliated with the Association, hospital-wide continuous quality improvement program, performance improvement system, JCAHO and regulatory compliance, clinical pathway development, and management engineering. Developed team approach with CFO and Director Contracting for management of Medicare, Medi-cal, and all managed care contracts providing regulatory expertise and clinical input for division of responsibilities between providers.Liaised between Kaiser Permanente and Sutter MHA to develop first exclusive Kaiser Contract with 50,000 lives with non-Kaiser hospital and non-Kaiser medical groups. Merged management of 125-physician medical group for departments of medical records, transcription, quality, and utilization management. Developed shared processes for utilization management for shared risk populations with a large medical group and participated in development of and managed all Capitated contracts.