Her Story
About Lori
I've been in healthcare for approximately 32 years, and I'm currently the manager of quality, risk, and safety for a home infusion company. I've been in this position since August, after working with the company for about a year and a half as a patient safety and quality improvement specialist. In my current role, I have complete oversight of our risk management program, leading the patient safety committee and working directly in event management. I also work in our patient experience department handling complaint management and patient satisfaction, along with quality improvement and quality assurance performance improvement work that involves a lot of data analysis across all the departments I manage. Before this, I was executive director of a home health organization for about 4 years, which I consider my most notable professional achievement. I've been working specifically in quality improvement roles for the last 10 to 12 years. What really drives me is my passion for quality improvement and patient safety. I didn't realize how much passion I had for the patient safety aspect until recently, which is why I pursued my CPPS certification. I'm really inspired by the whole patient safety aspect and learning about the systems as a whole, how they work, and what we can do to keep our patients safe.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Lori
01What do you attribute your success to?
If I decide I want to do something, I will pursue it and I'll just carry through and do it. I'm driven and resilient. When I set my mind to something, I don't give up - I just do it.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Somebody once told me you don't fully understand your job for about a year. I was only 3 months in and I thought I had it all figured out - I thought I knew everything and I was like, no, that's not true. But it was literally after that year passed that I realized, oh my gosh, he was right. I did not know what I was doing those first 3 months, even though I thought I did. So I tell everybody that now.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I think sky's the limit, really. There are so many opportunities in nursing. Find your passion. It's not just being in the hospital - there are so many different paths you can take as a nurse.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The challenge is having leadership prioritize quality across the organization. I've been working specifically in quality improvement roles for the last 10 to 12 years, and I've found that priorities seem to be driven around operations, regulatory aspects, joint commission things, and licensing. Quality seems to not be as prioritized, and it's really hard to get leadership's attention to some of the initiatives that I want to accomplish. That has been the biggest challenge - it just doesn't seem to be as much of a priority as I think it should be.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I think integrity and transparency with leadership are some of the big things, especially trusting. Integrity and trust are my top values.
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