National Organization for Health Care Quality Improvement
Installs New President
Mary Ellen Dalton, PhD, MBA, RN, 2012-13 President of the American Health Quality Association
Washington, D.C. – Washington, D.C. — Mary Ellen Dalton, CEO, President and Chair of Health Services Advisory Group (HSAG) of Phoenix, Arizona is the new President of the American Health Quality Association (AHQA). Dalton will serve a one-year term as AHQA President. She served as President-elect over the past year.
AHQA represents the national network of Medicare Quality Improvement Organizations
(QIOs) working to advance the quality of health care in America. The QIOs work
hand-in-hand with providers, consumers, and stakeholders across the continuum
of care to help them ensure patient safety, adopt best clinical practices,
and improve systems of health care delivery. As President, Dalton will provide
leadership to the AHQA Board of Directors and serve as an ex-officio, non-voting
member of all AHQA committees. She also will be the official AHQA spokesperson.
“The consistent, high-quality work that QIOs do daily with providers, communities, and stakeholders is critical to ensuring better health, better care, and lower costs for Medicare beneficiaries, “ said Dalton. “As AHQA President over the next year, I look forward to supporting the association and member QIOs in their important role as health quality champions and protectors. By helping providers improve health care delivery systems, QIOs help ensure health quality and safety not only for Medicare beneficiaries but for all Americans.”
In addition to her leadership of HSAG in Arizona, Dalton serves as President
and Chair of Health Services Advisory Group of California and FMQAI in Florida.
All three companies are QIOs, promoting the quality and safety of care for
Medicare beneficiaries in Arizona, California, and Florida.
Dalton co-founded HSAG in Phoenix and has more than 35 years of experience
in improving health care quality. She has led her company’s expansion in the area of External Quality Review for Medicaid recipients. With contracts in 14 states and satellite offices in Ohio, Colorado, Hawaii, and Arkansas, HSAG works to ensure that Medicaid recipients receive appropriate and timely access to high-quality care.
She serves as a Board member for Arizona Health-e Connection (a public-private
non-profit driving the adoption and optimization of health information technology
and health information exchange) and for the non-profit Boys Hope Girls Hope
in Phoenix, chairing its Governance Committee. She is also a member of the
Cardin Children’s Hospital Advisory Council and has established a student scholarship foundation at Arizona State University.
Dalton earned a Diploma in Nursing in New Jersey, a BS degree from Colorado
Women’s College, and an MBA and PhD in Public Administration from Arizona State University. She is credentialed as a Diplomate of The American Board of Quality Assurance & Utilization Review Physicians, Inc. (ABQAURP). She is also a Certified HEDIS Compliance Auditor (CHCA) with the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA).
Dalton succeeds Jennifer Lundblad, PhD, MBA, President and CEO of Bloomington,
Minn.-based Stratis Health, the QIO for Minnesota. AHQA’s President-elect is Adrienne Mims, MD, MPH, Medical Director – Medicare Quality Improvement at Atlanta-based Alliant | GMCF, which is the QIO for Georgia.
About AHQA
The American Health Quality Association represents Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs) and professionals working to improve the quality of health care in communities across America. QIOs share information about best practices with physicians, hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies, and others. Working together with health care providers, QIOs identify opportunities and provide assistance for improvement. Learn more about AHQA at http://www.ahqa.org.
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