Woman’s Hospital has promoted Cathy Griffiths, DNS, NEA-BC, RNC-OB, to chief quality officer. Griffiths has dedicated her career to improving patient care with more than 40 years in nursing and healthcare administration, including serving as Woman’s vice president of quality since 2014. She is responsible for quality, regulatory/accreditation, risk management, patient safety, infection control, pharmacy, utilization management, organization-wide education, and social services. She also provides direction and structure for regulatory readiness and accreditation survey process.
Griffiths has led Woman’s through two successful Joint Commission surveys with another on the way this year. She has implemented structure and policies to help Woman’s become a Patient Safety Organization, and guided the organization to a four-star rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). She has also been responsible for the hospital’s infection prevention policies throughout the pandemic and for implementing its COVID-19 vaccine program for employees and the community.
Griffiths has also shown a commitment to education as an instructor of nursing for LSU Health since 2011. Her own education credentials include a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Loyola University New Orleans, a master’s degree in healthcare management from the University of New Orleans, and a doctorate in nursing science from LSU Health Sciences Center.
She achieved her Six Sigma Black Belt in 2018, which means she is certified in the Lean Six Sigma Methodology and is able to lead complex improvement projects that can benefit her organization and help improve patient care and outcomes. She also was published for her work on maternal quality outcomes and cost in Critical Care Nursing Clinics North America in 2019.