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Making a Difference: HSAG Salutes Nurses in Quality Improvement

Nearly 2.7 million nurses provide quality health care to U.S. citizens each year. Some deliver this care directly to patients across the spectrum of health care settings: hospitals, physician offices, long-term-care facilities, and even in the patient's home. However, a small percentage of nurses have followed another career path -- one that allows them to positively influence the quality of health care received by millions of patients across the nation each year.

This is positive impact that more than 70 nurses make when they apply their formal training, hands-on clinical experience, talent and expertise to the quality improvement efforts of Health Services Advisory Group (HSAG).

Profiles in Quality Two nurses in particular have played in key role in helping put HSAG on the national map of quality improvement. These two nurses are Mary Ellen Dalton and Debbie Nixon, current Executive Management Team members, and co-founders of the company back in 1982. Read on.

In observance of National Nurses Week, HSAG salutes the clinical quality specialists, case review specialists, program directors, vice presidents, and many others whose contributions have made HSAG one of the nation's most trusted and innovative leaders in health care quality improvement.

As the Medicare Quality Improvement Organization for Arizona, and External Quality Review Organization for 10 states, HSAG nurses help improve the health care received by an estimated 2.5 million Medicare and Medicaid patients. In fact, they touch more lives in a week than most individual providers do in a year.

With responsibilities ranging from provider education and training, case review, to social marketing, the nurses at HSAG play a key and active role in quality improvement success.

Hats off to the nurses of HSAG for their dedication, passion and commitment to improving quality of care -- and the quality of life -- for millions of patients throughout the nation.

About Nurses Week
National Nurses Week is devoted to highlighting the diverse ways in which registered nurses, the largest health care profession, are working to improve health care. From bedside nursing in hospitals and long-term care facilities to the halls of research institutions, state legislatures, and Congress, the depth and breadth of the nursing profession is meeting the expanding health care needs of American society. Annually, National Nurses Week begins on May 6, marked as RN Recognition Day, and ends on May 12, the birthday of Florence Nightingale, founder of nursing as a modern profession.