Patient Safety and Quality

Patient safety is the cornerstone of high-quality health care and is focused on how hospitals and other health care organizations protect their patients from errors, injuries, accidents, and infection. Nurses are in a key position to improve the quality of health care through patient safety interventions and strategies, and they are critical to the surveillance and coordination of quality of care that reduces adverse health outcomes. Columbia University School of Nursing’s research portfolio places it at the forefront of patient safety and quality initiatives targeting multiple health care settings such as hospitals, ambulatory care units, long-term care facilities, nursing homes, and home health care. Much of our work focuses on producing evidence to make health care safer, of higher quality, and more accessible, equitable, and affordable, which aligns with the mission of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, a major funder of Columbia Nursing’s research endeavors.

Researchers

  • Gregory L. Alexander, PhD, RN, FAAN, FACMI, FIAHSI

    • Helen Young CUPHSONAA Professor of Nursing

    Research Approaches: Clinical, Health Services and Policy, Informatics

    Research Interests: Quality Measurement, Long-term Care, Digital Maturity, Surveys, Rural, Nurse Practitioners, Care Environment

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  • Kellie Bryant, DNP, WHNP, CHSE

    • Associate Professor of Nursing at CUMC

    Research Approaches: Clinical, Comparative Effectiveness
    Research Interests: Simulation-Based Education, Nursing Education

  • Amanda Hessels, PhD, MSN, MPH, BSN, CPHQ, CIC, FAAN, FAPIC

    • Assistant Professor of Nursing

    Research Approaches: Clinical, Informatics, Interdisciplinary

  • Jingjing Shang, PhD, FAAN

    • Professor of Nursing at CUMC

    Research Approaches: Health Services and Policy
    Research Interests: Infection Control, Home Health Care, Risk Modeling

  • Patricia W. Stone, PhD, MPH, MSN, BSN, FAAN, FAPIC

    • Centennial Professor of Health Policy in the Faculty of Nursing

    Research Approaches: Comparative Effectiveness, Health Services and Policy, Interdisciplinary
    Research Interests: Infection Control, Palliative Care, Geriatrics, Nursing Homes, Infection Management, End-of-Life, Community Settings

  • Maxim Topaz, PhD, MA, RN, FAAN

    • Elizabeth Standish Gill Associate Professor of Nursing

    Research Approaches: Clinical, Informatics, Precision Health
    Research Interests: Artificial Intelligence, Data Mining, Natural Language Processing, Predictive Modeling, Hospital to Home Care

  • Maryam Zolnoori, PhD

    • Assistant Professor of Health Sciences Research (in Nursing)

    Research Approaches: Informatics, Interdisciplinary, Precision Health

    Research Interests: Mild Cognitive Impairment, underrepresented populations, early detection, clinical decision support systems, patient-clinician communication, Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, caregivers.

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