Technical Advisory Conference Call on
"NQF Endorsed Nursing Sensitive Measures"
(Proposed for 2010 CMS reporting)

SPEAKERS

Sandra L. Fly, RN, BS, CPHQ, PSO
Director of Quality/Risk Services and Patient Safety Officer
The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler
Sandra Fly has approximately 15 years experience as a professional leader, Director of Quality/Risk, Patient Safety Officer and Joint Commission Coordinator.  During that time she has developed experience as a patient safety officer and has a proven ability to work in unison with customers, staff, medical staff and administrators.  For her work she has received multiple awards for quality and customer service, as well as having been a Nursing Excellence Nominee. Ms. Fly received her RN degree from Regents College in New York, and a BS in Healthcare Administration from Shaftesbury University On-Line Education.  She is also currently completing studies for a Masters Degree in Nursing with Walden University.  In addition to these, Ms. Fly has taken Medical Leadership Training with NAPH and Executive Patient Safety Training with IHI.

Ellen T. Kurtzman, MPH, RN
Assistant Research Professor, Department of Nursing Education
George Washington University
Ms. Kurtzman current research, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), focuses on designing and promoting national policies that reflect nursing’s contribution to quality and driving a coordinated response to the challenges and opportunities of creating value-based purchasing programs that recognize nursing’s contribution.  Prior to joining GW, she was senior program director at the National Quality Forum (NQF) and led national efforts to establish health care quality and performance standards for hospital, nursing, and home health care.  She has also served in senior capacities for organizations including the American Health Care Association, National PACE Association, the American Red Cross, and The Partnership for Behavioral Healthcare.  Ms. Kurtzman served as a Senior Examiner for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and Examiner for the U.S. Senate Productivity and Maryland Quality Awards.  Ms. Kurtzman holds a bachelors degree in nursing from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and a masters in public health from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

Karen Pace, PhD, RN
Senior Program Director
National Quality Forum
At the National Quality Forum, Dr. Pace leads projects to establish voluntary consensus standards on healthcare quality measures and practices and researches and synthesizes information on candidate measures for consideration as voluntary consensus standards.  Prior to the NQF, she was Senior Scientist at the Delmarva Foundation, where she directed analyses of Medicare’s home health quality improvement initiative and developed quality improvement resources. She was a consultant for the University of Colorado Outcome Reporting and Enhancement Research Partnership and Vice President for Research and Regulatory Affairs at the National Association for Home Care.  She has had extensive clinical experience in the areas of home care, oncology, hospice and neuromedicine.  Dr. Pace received her doctorate from the University of Kansas, her master’s degree in Nursing at St. Louis University and her bachelors in nursing at the Southern Illinois University.

Sharon L. Sprenger, RHIA, CPHQ, MPA
Senior Advisor Measurement Outreach, Division of Quality Measurement and Research
Joint Commission
Sharon Sprenger serves as a primary Joint Commission representative in external efforts to make credible, evidence-based performance measurement data readily available and useful to the public, providers, purchasers, oversight organizations and other interested parties.  She is the primary interface with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the respective Quality Improvement Organizations to create the common measure specifications for shared measure sets.  She also participates on numerous national groups as liaison for committees of the National Quality Forum, the Hospital Quality Alliance, American Medical Association, American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association. Ms. Sprenger’s diverse professional experience includes positions with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan, The HMO of Delaware, Condell Memorial Hospital and Central Michigan Community Hospital.  She has a Master’s in Public Administration from Roosevelt University, a Bachelor’s of Science in Medical Records Administration and an Associate’s Applied Science in Medical Records Technology from Ferris State University.

Susan Yendro, RN, BSN
Associate Project Director, Center for Performance Measurement, Department of Quality Measurement, Division of Quality Measurement and Research
Joint Commission
Susan Yendro manages projects associated with the development and the identification and evaluation of measures for use by healthcare organizations and other relevant entities in ongoing quality assessment and improvement activities. Ms. Yendro is the co-facilitator for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funded project Testing and National Implementation of the National Quality Forum Endorsed Nursing-Sensitive Care Performance Measure Set. Ms. Yendro’s professional experience includes Patient Care Administrator for a large hospice care provider, Performance Improvement Specialist, Home Care Coordinator, Insurance Case Manager, and specialty product line coordinator for home health and hospice care agencies, staff nurse for various departments of a large physician clinic, and staff nurse at a children’s hospital. Ms. Yendro is a Registered Nurse with a Bachelor of Science Nursing degree from Illinois Wesleyan University and has a Diploma in Paralegal Studies - Legal Nurse Consulting from Kaplan College