Healthcare Safety-Protecting Patients and Front Line Staff 

December 18th from 7:45A.M. to 9:15A.M. at St. Luke’s Institute for Health Education.

This panel will present a framework for a patient safety program that protects patients and healthcare providers from preventable injury. The program will begin with a brief presentation by the moderator, followed by remarks from each of the three panelists on various aspects of the patient safety program. The program will conclude with a 15 minute question and answer period.  Participants will learn what organizational infrastructure is required to successfully implement an effective patient safety program.

Denise Murphy came to Barnes-Jewish Hospital as chief safety and quality officer in March 2003. She became vice president for safety and quality in November 2005.  Prior to taking that position, she spent seven years as director of health-care epidemiology and patient safety for BJC HealthCare. Murphy went to nursing school in Philadelphia, received her BSN in Portland, Maine, and a master of public health degree from St. Louis University, School of Public Health.  Murphy’s early nursing experience was in pediatric ICUs, surgical nursing and nursing management. She entered the field of infection control in 1981, sitting for the first certification in infection control (CIC) exam in 1983. She has been an epidemiologist in hospitals ranging from 100 – 1200 beds. Her presentations and publications are numerous, focusing on prevention of surgical site and bloodstream infections and ventilator –associated pneumonia, on establishing or re-designing infection prevention and patient safety services, and the business of infection control, patient safety and performance improvement.  Murphy is an active member of The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC), the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) and the American Society for Healthcare Risk Managers (ASHRM). She has served three terms as a director on the APIC national board and as chair of strategic planning. Murphy is president-elect of APIC and will be president in 2007. Her goal to help shape national policy and standards becomes a reality in July 2007 when she joins the National Quality Forum as a technical advisor and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Hospital Infection Control Practice Advisory Council (HICPAC).  Murphy graduated from the first AHA/National Patient Safety Foundation sponsored Leadership Fellowship training program in August, 2003. She joins the faculty for that fellowship program in July 2007.  

Becky Miller is the Executive Director of the Missouri Center for Patient Safety.  In this position, she is leading a statewide not-for-profit Center that serves as the lead organization and convener around patient safety issues in Missouri.  The Center serves as a central resource to educate and provide support for patient safety activities of health care providers and professionals and serves as a convener across broad stakeholder groups with an interest in patient safety.    Prior to her position with the Center, Becky served as Vice President of Quality and Regulatory Advocacy at the Missouri Hospital Association.  Becky has worked in healthcare for over 25 years with experience in hospital operations, compliance, quality improvement, risk management, customer service, safety and security and health care policy and has led numerous statewide projects for the improvement of healthcare.  Becky holds a Master’s Degree in Health Care Administration from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a Bachelor’s Degree in Management.  She is a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives and is a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality.