The National Quality Forum (NQF) has elected new leadership across four of the organization’s Member Councils, including the Health Professionals Council, the Provider Organizations Council, the Public-Community Health Agency Council, and the Quality Measurement, Research, and Improvement (QMRI) Council.
NQF Member Councils – organized by stakeholder group – afford members a strong voice to help advance efforts to improve healthcare quality through collaboration with industry peers. Member Council chairs are tasked with advising NQF leadership on the organization’s overall strategy and direction providing input to the Consensus Standards Approval Committee on proposed consensus standards, and serving on the Leadership Network that oversees NQF’s education and award recognition programs.
“These leaders bring far-reaching experience and expertise within the healthcare field to their respective Member Council roles,” said Janet Corrigan, PhD, MBA, NQF president and chief executive officer. “I look forward to working with them to continue to push forward a meaningful shared vision for making care safer, more affordable, and of higher quality.”
The elected leaders, by Member Council, are:
Health Professionals Council: Representing the primary providers of healthcare, including doctors, nurses, and clinicians.
Chair: William L. Rich, III, American Academy of Ophthalmology
William Rich is the medical director of health policy at the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Previously, he served as organization’s secretary for federal affairs. He has had a 25-year career in health policy, management practice management, and quality metrics, having consulted with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the National Health Policy Forum, the National Institute of Health Care Management, and the Institute of Medicine.
Vice-Chair: David M. Shahian, Society of Thoracic Surgeons
David Shahian, MD, professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School and associate medical director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Quality and Safety, is the chair of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Workforce on National Databases and its Quality Measurement Task Force, in which capacity he has successfully led several initiatives in performance measure development and implementation. Previously, Dr. Shahian was chair of the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at the Lahey Clinic, as well as professor and chair of the Department of Surgery at Caritas St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Boston.
Provider Organizations Council: Representing hospitals, group practices, rehabilitation facilities, long-term care facilities, and pharmacies, among others.
Chair: Carol P. Mullin, Virtua Health
Carol Mullin is vice president for clinical outcomes and quality management at Virtua Health, where she is responsible for the planning and execution of all quality and patient safety plans for Virtua’s hospitals, home care agencies, nursing homes, and ambulatory sites. Her 26-year career has been devoted to quality improvement, regulatory affairs, and patient safety.
Vice-Chair: Michael P. Phelan, Cleveland Clinic
Michael Phelan, MD, is a medical director in Cleveland Clinic’s Quality and Patient Safety Institute and a practicing board certified emergency medicine physician. He has more than 15 years of clinical experience and a long-standing focus on quality and patient safety issues. Dr. Phelan previously served on NQF’s Hospital-based Emergency Department Care Steering Committee.
Public-Community Health Agency Council: Comprised of public/private partnerships and public health organizations focused around a host of areas, including eliminating health disparities and addressing equity, chronic disease management, and health promotion and disease prevention, among others.
Chair: Marcia Wilson, Center for Health Care Quality, The George Washington University
Marcia Wilson, PhD, is a lead research scientist at the Center for Health Care Quality at The George Washington University Medical Center School of Public Health and Health Services. She focuses her work on the Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) program, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s effort to lift the overall quality of health care in sixteen targeted communities. Dr. Wilson is responsible for determining strategic direction in the program’s focus areas, monitoring and assessing the program’s progress, and translating strategic decisions into operational program activities.
QMRI Council: Representing organizations that conduct research, education, or initiatives to improve healthcare quality, measurement, and reporting, and offer essential expertise when evaluating new measures, practices, and guidelines for endorsement.
Chair: Barbara Corn, National Association for Healthcare Quality
Barbara Corn, currently director of affordability for UnitedHealthcare, has been active with the National Association for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ) for more than 20 years, where she supports NAHQ’s goal of healthcare improvement through innovative practices in quality and patient safety. She currently serves on the NAHQ National Quality Forum team and is a reviewer for the Journal for Healthcare Quality.
Vice-Chair: Hussein Tahan, Case Management Society of America
Hussein Tahan, DNSc, currently director of nursing research and education at New York Presbyterian Hospital and assistant professor of clinical nursing at Columbia University School of Nursing, is a member of the Case Management Society of America, where he contributes to research in the field of case management and care coordination, specifically service delivery and roles of case managers. He has more than 20 years of healthcare experience and leadership in acute care. Previously, he has served as executive director of international health services at New York Presbyterian Hospital.
The National Quality Forum operates under a three-part mission to improve the quality of American healthcare by:
- Building consensus on national priorities and goals for performance improvement and working in partnership to achieve them;
- Endorsing national consensus standards for measuring and publicly reporting on performance; and
- Promoting the attainment of national goals through education and outreach programs.
