Holdrege nursing executive, Ann McGowan, is appointed
The Nebraska Coalition for Patient Safety (NCPS) announced today that Ann McGowan, R.N., M.S.N., has been named executive director of the coalition. In her role, McGowan will be responsible for the overall management of NCPS activities and for providing direction to the coalition and its members as they work to create a culture of safety within their facilities.
McGowan comes to the coalition from Phelps Memorial Health Center in Holdrege, Neb., where, as chief nursing officer, she oversaw the direction of all clinical nursing departments. She has served as co-chair of the Clinical Excellence and Patient Safety Committees for Phelps Memorial Health Center.
She will be the first full-time executive director of the NCPS, which will now be housed in the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s School of Allied Health Professions.
“I look forward to serving Nebraska’s hospitals in this new role,” McGowan said. “The coalition’s focus on learning from adverse patient safety events is an important step in creating and maintaining a culture of safety in our hospitals.”
“Continued growth in institutional membership and the expanding activities of the NCPS have allowed for this transition,” said Stephen Smith, M.D., president of the NCPS board and chief medical officer of The Nebraska Medical Center.
“We are excited to take this next important step forward in building the coalition. We are proud of the coalition’s accomplishments and look forward to continuing to be of value to our members as they endeavor to provide high quality, safe health care.”
Formed in 2006, the NCPS is a partnership of the Nebraska Academy of Physician Assistants, the Nebraska Hospital Association, the Nebraska Medical Association, the Nebraska Nurses Association, the Nebraska Pharmacists Association and 45 hospitals that represent about 75 percent of the inpatient discharges in Nebraska.
NCPS is responsible for analyzing reported patient safety events in compliance with the Patient Safety Improvement Act. It encourages a culture of safety and quality in Nebraska’s health care facilities through ongoing educational activities, provides for the reporting of aggregate information about patient safety occurrences and shares information designed to improve the health care delivery system and reduce the incidence of adverse health events.
In 2009, the coalition was designated as a federal patient safety organization by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
The NCPS has close ties to UNMC and The Nebraska Medical Center. In addition to Dr. Smith, another active NCPS board member is Katherine Jones, Ph.D., assistant professor of physical therapy education in the UNMC School of Allied Health Professions. Dr. Jones has been instrumental in providing patient safety and quality training to 56 Nebraska hospitals. Her translational research emphasizes safety culture, teamwork and communication.
“Providing the ‘organizational home’ for the NCPS was a win-win decision,” said Kyle Meyer, Ph.D., senior associate dean of the UNMC School of Allied Health Professions, “especially given the complimentary relationship between the work of NCPS and the research of Dr. Jones.”