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Summer 2025 Newsletter

    Summer 2025 Newsletter

     

     

    President’s Message

    Meet the Board of Directors

    Program Committee

    Treasurer’s Report

    Member Spotlight

    PI Corner

    Blog Post

    News from the Net

     

     

    President’s Message 

    Dear NEAHQ Members and Community,

    I hope this message finds you well and you are enjoying the long days of summer. As your NEAHQ President for the year ahead, I’m honored to share a few reflections and updates as we continue our collective journey to advance healthcare quality across New England.

    This year, we welcomed both new and returning Board members—each bringing valuable insight, energy, and a shared passion for improvement. Our kickoff strategy session was filled with fresh ideas and inspiration as we mapped out opportunities to better serve our members and strengthen our impact. We’re focused on creating timely, relevant programming and resources that reflect the evolving landscape of healthcare quality, safety, and equity.

    I invite all of you to consider contributing to our newsletter or getting involved in one of our initiatives. Whether you have a case study, a perspective on quality improvement, or a reflection on your professional journey—your voice helps spark the kind of dialogue that drives meaningful change.

    Be sure to explore our upcoming events, including virtual offerings through the Healthcare Quality Collective. You can find more details on our Events Calendar, and we hope to see many of you there.

    If you’re not yet a member, we’d love to have you join our growing community. And if you’re looking for a way to get more involved—perhaps by joining a committee, volunteering, or just learning more—please don’t hesitate to reach out.

    Thank you for all that you do to make healthcare better. Wishing you a restful and joyful summer season!

    Warm regards,

    Sabrina Zerzouri

     

    Introducing the 2025 – 2026 NEAHQ Board of Directors!

    President – Sabrina Zerzouri, MPH, Senior Medicare Advantage Stars Associate, Devoted Health, Inc. 

    Past-President – Aliysa Rajwani, BDS, MPH, Director of Quality and Patient Safety, Mount Auburn Hospital

    President-Elect – Rita Morin, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, CPHQ, Senior Director Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Needham

    Treasurer – Lynn Keeley, CHES, Director of Performance Improvement, Whittier Rehabilitation Hospital

    Directors

    • Leigh Roche, RN, BSN, MBA, CPHQ, CPPS, Senior Clinical Quality Specialist, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center
    • Lauren Hartwell, MPH, Senior Program Manager, Population Health Management, Point32Health
    • Lynn Myers, RN, MBA, CPHQ
    • Daniel Okyere, Sc.D, RN, CPPS, CPHQ, Systems Redesign Coordinator, Dept of Veteran Affairs
    • Maria Theresa Mercado, RN, MAN, MAEd, MPH, MD
    • Juanita Prescod, MS, CIC, CPHQ, Health Science Specialist (Infection Preventionist), Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital
    • Christine Smith, BS, Quality Improvement Specialist Supervisor, Lowell General Hospital
    • Rutwa Naik, MHA, MBA, CPHQ, Director, Regulatory Affairs, Lahey Hospital and Medical Center
    • Daniel Morrissey, MBA, MPH, Manager, Regulatory Readiness, Tufts Medical Center
    • Allan Tambio, MHA, System Redesign & Improvement Specialist, Dept of Veteran Affairs
    • Ann Turbett, RN, MS, CPHQ, Quality RN Specialist, Mount Auburn Hospital
    • Janice McLaughlin, MSN, RN, ACCNS-AG, CCRN-K, CNRN, SCRN, Senior Director, Quality Performance and Value-Based Care, Tufts Medical Center

     

    Program Committee

    NEAHQ and our affiliated partner associations, as part of the multi-state Healthcare Quality Association Collective, have several great programs scheduled this summer. Some programs are free for NEAHQ members, while others are discounted. Visit our Events Calendar to connect to registration information for each of these programs or navigate through the links below. Thank you for your continued support and participation!

     

    Treasurer’s Report January – May 2025

    NEAHQ currently has $40,492.01 in total assets as of the end of May 2025.  Total revenue generated in 2025 YTD  (Jan-May) is $4,073.28.  NEAHQ generated $3707.09 in revenue from membership dues while $366.19 came from programs.  Total expenditures for 2025 YTD (Jan-May) are $3,712.56.  Total expenditures were made up of administrative, operating and CEU expenses. As always, please feel free to reach out to treasurer@neahq.org with any questions.

     

    Board Member Spotlight – Dan Morrissey

    Would you please share a brief overview of your career?

    I have definitely had an “a la carte” career in healthcare, and I have done a little bit of everything. Throughout college I was a nursing assistant while I studied with the intent of eventually going to medical school (I joke that I was pre-med in college and “post-med” in grad school). I eventually became a unit clerk before working as a microbiology tech at Toledo Hospital in Ohio. (Prepping for an ISO inspection was my first foray into survey readiness.) While I was getting my MPH, I transitioned to a job in health insurance where I had my first real role in Quality Improvement. Some of my responsibilities included leading state Medicaid initiatives, supporting the company’s Medicare Stars program, and managing documentation for NCQA. In 2021, I moved to Boston to work in my current role as Manager of Regulatory Readiness for Tufts Medical Center and the rest is history.

    Which aspect of your current position is especially rewarding?

    The best part of regulatory readiness is eliminating anxiety. People understandably have an innate avoidance of surveyors or anyone who they feel will reprimand them for “not doing their job correctly.” When you get to work alongside clinical and operations teams and help them preempt questions that surveyors will ask, or know what to avoid when a survey occurs, you get the ability to see your preparation pay off. There is always anxiety when regulators visit, and there are often unfortunate lessons learned, but watching a sense of relief wash over people when they realize that they have “survived” and were well-prepared makes at least some of the stress worth it.

    Has any one individual greatly influenced to your career?

    In college, I worked in my Neuroscience professor’s lab, and while he imparted many words of wisdom to me, I always remember his commitment to the “watch one, do one, teach one” process for learning new tasks and skills. Each step is humbling. We want to jump in and just start working but we really learn better when we watch someone do something the correct way first. After that, we can try our hand and finetune our process before eventually training another person to crystallize our understanding. While this is easier said than done for some jobs (including Regulatory Readiness where some surveys only happen every 3-5 years), this really is the best way to learn and improve for just about every skill I have ever learned.

    What led to your involvement with NEAHQ?

    In short, Lynn Myers! I was fortunate to see firsthand a lot of the work that Lynn put into the organization while working together at Tufts, and when she asked me to join, I knew I would get something out of it.

    What are your goals as a NEAHQ Board Member?

    I would love to help expand the reach and membership of the organization as well as learn ways we can preempt new trends in healthcare quality (whether the rise of AI, new payment and reimbursement models that may change quality programs, etc.). Some good networking will not hurt either!

    How do you balance your demanding professional life with your personal life?

    While this sounds a little simple, I think hardwired routines have been a great help. Getting to bed by 10pm in order to be at work by 7am, doing food prep during the weekends so that I don’t have to worry about dinner during the week, and trying to set rules for when I can check email when away from work all make a huge difference. I also think that because my job is not very “remote-friendly,” I feel like I am allowed to draw a stronger line of demarcation between my personal and professional life. 

     

    PI Corner – SIPOC

    A SIPOC diagram provides a high-level view of a process by documenting its suppliers, inputs, process, outputs, and customers. It visualizes how everyone in the process receives materials or data from each other and is often used to improve or understand processes that impact customer experience.

    The acronym SIPOC stands for these five components:

    • Suppliers: The input sources for the process
    • Inputs: The resources you need for the process to function
    • Process: The high-level steps of the process
    • Outputs: The results of the process
    • Customers: The people who receive outputs or benefit from the process.

     

    High Reliability Principle: Deference to Expertise

    Check out the blog here.

     

    News from the Net

    Partnering with Patients and Families to Enhance Safety and Quality: A Toolkit, Institute for Patient and Family centered Care, Updated April 2025

    This 45-page toolkit describes the history of patient safety, and the evolution of patient and family partnerships in safety and quality improvement. The CMS Patient Safety Structural Measure is highlighted with information about best practices and emerging best practices for how hospitals and health systems are responding to this new 20 measure. In addition, this resource includes practical tools for creating and sustaining these essential partnerships with patients and families.

    From the IPFCC Resource Center.  Link is here.

    Making Healthcare Safer IV Making Healthcare Safer IV: Summary of Findings on Patient Safety Practices and  Ratings by a Technical Expert Panel, 2024-2025, prepared for AHRQ

    The fourth installment of the Making Healthcare Safer (MHS) series of reviews marks nearly a quarter century’s progress in efforts to meet the challenge of reducing and, ultimately, eliminating preventable patient harm. Throughout this patient safety journey, the MHS series synthesizes and disseminates evidence on the effectiveness of patient safety practices (PSPs).

    Link to full document here

    Just Culture eLearning Module Just Culture Essentials: Building a Strong Foundation for Patient Safety, Free ISMP Canada, May 7, 2025

    ISMP Canada, in collaboration with the Health Quality Council of Alberta (HQCA), is sharing a new free eLearning module that introduces the core concepts of just culture for all health care staff.

    Access the module here: https://elearn.ismp-canada.org/login/index.php

     

     
     June 27, 2025
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