AHQA Board of Directors & Staff

Quality Insights, Inc. is the lead organization of a five-state Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO) chartered by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Under CMS’ End Stage Renal Disease Network (ESRD) program, Quality Insights improves care for kidney patients in three regions. Quality Insights also abstracts records for the Department of Veterans Affairs and conducts nationwide quality reviews for the American College of Cardiology. Quality Insights has been involved in regional health extension center initiatives in Pennsylvania, Delaware and West Virginia, helping thousands of physicians adopt and meaningfully use electronic health records.

Prior to coming to Quality Insights, Dr. Berg served as Chief of Clinical Services at the United States Air Force’s largest and most complex hospital—Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. In this position he oversaw delivery of over one million outpatient and 25 thousand inpatient encounters annually. His accomplishments included merging the professional and clinical services staff of two major medical centers, launching a physician engagement initiative that boosted productivity by 15% in its first year, and chartering 12 organization-wide lean events to improve efficiency and improve health care quality and patient safety.

Previously as Chief of Clinical Services for a Medical Operations Group, he was responsible for setting and ensuring standards of professional practice for over 400 group physicians, and also overseeing process improvement and patient safety activities. He coauthored a five-year, $65 million plan for a congressionally funded diabetes prevention and treatment project and ultimately established a diabetes center of excellence.

Dr. Berg earned his MD at Cornell University Medical College and a Masters in Public Health-health Services Administration at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. He completed a residency in Pediatrics at Wilford Hall USAF Medical Center and a fellowship in Pediatric Hematology-Oncology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Dr. Berg is a Fellow the American Academy of Pediatrics, and a Certified Physician Executive. He is licensed to practice in West Virginia, Ohio and Texas.

Currently, as Vice-president of Federal Health Solutions at Telligen, she has senior leadership responsibilities over a portfolio of Telligen’s federal health contracts, and is actively involved in strategic planning, account management, operations, solution development and achieving client satisfaction.

Her recent major accomplishments include: 

• Leading national practice transformation learning and diffusion, as well as, health and health care improvement and cost reduction efforts.
• Co-leading the reorganization and 11th Statement of Work Development for the CMS QIN- QIO and End Stage Renal Disease Network programs.
• Senior leader and co-founder of the Learning and Diffusion Group for CMS CMMI, overseeing the ground-breaking development of learning and diffusion approach for CMS CMMI models.
• Provided oversight of QIO and ESRD Network programs at regional level in thirteen mid-western states.
• Leading a bi-state employer and community-based health and healthcare improvement and cost reduction initiatives for depression and cardiovascular disease.

Prior to joining KFMC, Mrs. Good has served in a variety of healthcare roles with more than 20 years’ experience.  Most recently, she was the Risk and Quality Manager, Education Coordinator and Corporate Compliance Officer for a 25-bed Critical Access Hospital and healthcare delivery system in Rural Kansas.  Sarah has worked in acute care settings (both critical access and larger system affiliated PPS facilities), ambulatory care settings, and both outpatient and inpatient behavioral health.  She earned her Bachelor of Science in Legal Studies with an emphasis in Health Care Operations from Kaplan University and her Master of Health Administration from Ohio University. KFMC has served as the state-based QIO designated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) since the program's national inception, most recently as a local quality improvement partner operating under the Health Quality Innovation Network (HQIN) umbrella. KFMC is also the External Quality Review Organization (EQRO) and Independent Review Organization (IRO) for the state of Kansas. Additionally, KFMC contracts with many private companies to provide health information technology (HIT), quality improvement and practice transformation consulting services, along with a variety of review, abstraction, programming and analytic services across multiple states. Throughout various contracts, KFMC works with healthcare providers and organizations to develop ways to improve care delivery and health consumer processes.

Alliant Quality is a Network of Quality Innovation and Improvement Contractor (NQIIC) that implements Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts. The contract work supports quality improvement efforts to maximize impacts for QIN-QIO work, End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Networks, hospital-focused large scale improvements, clinician-focused technical assistance, and other quality improvement work.

Kluge has more than 40 years of experience in dietetics and quality management. She has held supervisory, management and clinical roles for a variety of health care providers. She joined Alliant Quality in 2003, then known as the Georgia Medical Care Foundation (GMCF), serving as a quality improvement and education specialist. Kluge then served as a home health/nursing home/quality team manager prior to begin promoted to the director of the QIO and serving as a member of the Alliant executive management team. She has extensive experience working with nursing homes, hospitals, and communities on several initiatives for patient safety, care transitions and beneficiary protection.

Prior to Alliant, Kluge held several positions at Beverly Enterprises, a long-term care, skilled nursing and rehabilitation provider, including serving as a senior director of its Quality Management department. She started her dietetics career as a dietary consultant for Judy Ford Stokes & Associates in Georgia and Florida.

After earning a bachelor of science degree from Hood College in Frederick, MD, Kluge completed the coordinated undergraduate program in dietetics at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD. She has received the Distinguished Service Award from Aging Services of Georgia, was the recipient of the President’s Mentor Award from the Florida Dietetic Association and the 2018 American Health Care Association Mary K. Ousley Champion of Quality award. Currently, she is a member of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Quality Leader Alliance and Quality Strategies Workgroup. Linda volunteers with Alliant staff at Open Hand Atlanta and is a dedicated member of the Dunwoody Evening Community Bible Study core leadership team.

Prior to his current role with IPRO, Dr. Machado worked as Senior Director in the Strategic Partnerships Department at National Quality Forum where he was responsible for managing projects related to uses of healthcare performance measurement information for payment incentives, public reporting, accreditation and certification, and systems improvement. Dr. Machado has also worked as Medical Director for the Health Care Incentives Improvement Institute, Inc. (HCI3) where he oversaw the Bridges to Excellence (BTE) Care Recognition Programs, while assisting various stakeholders and partners (including the American College of Cardiology, American Board of Internal Medicine, the NYS Health Foundation, and NYC Dept. of Health & Mental Hygiene) in managing and supporting healthcare quality performance measurement program implementations.

Dr. Machado serves on a number of state and national advisory committees including the CMS MACRA Episode-based Resource Use Measures Technical Expert Panel, URAC’s Measures Advisory Group, and the NYS DOH’s Chronic Heart, Pulmonary, and Diabetes Value Based Payment Clinical Advisory Group.

Dr. Machado received his undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences from Cornell University and earned both MD and MBA degrees from Yale University. Dr. Machado undertook his clinical training in internal medicine at New York Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center.

University Graduate Program in Health Services Administration.

A seasoned leader with in-depth industry and organizational expertise, Ms. Preston is passionate about leveraging systematic quality improvement, analytics and health information technology to address complex problems. She is also active in the patient and family advisory arena and remains a constant advocate for including the patient voice as a catalyst to help solve challenges facing the health care industry. She led HealthInsight’s first patient and family advisory council and serves on the advisory board of PFCCpartners.

Before assuming her current role, Ms. Preston served in leadership positions at HealthInsight. She was Utah executive director, where she was responsible for governance, operations and community relations, and development; secretary of the Utah community board; vice president of Utah operations; and Utah quality improvement director. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in health care administration from Oregon State University and a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Utah. She is committed to maintaining her connection to her local health care community and serves on multiple boards including Get Healthy Utah, Utah Hospital Association and chairs the quality committee of St. Mark’s Hospital Board of Trustees.

He also serves as the IDIQ Director, leading operations for GPQIN.  Ryan’s current duties include providing executive and strategic leadership for successful performance of Task Orders under the IDIQ contract, overall supervision, strategic planning and direction, and policy development for the IDIQ contract and for other designated contracts/initiatives undertaken by GPQIN.  His responsibilities include reporting outcomes to the GPQIN Board of Directors, regularly monitoring performance as compared to contract goals, convening leadership across GPQIN monthly via the Regional Management Committee.  Another area of responsibility includes managing internal and external customer relationships with CMS, key stakeholders, providers, customers, and clients at the state, regional, and national level.

 Ryan enjoys supporting healthcare providers and stakeholders across our region, and gets in an occasional round of golf between his kids’ various activities/sports.  He received his Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Sioux Falls.