Debbie Barnard, MSc, RN, CPHQ
Empanalled Consultant and Expert - Quality Improvement Services
Ms. Debbie Sears Barnard brings over three decades of demonstrated effective leadership in healthcare in various practice settings (including acute care, home health, hospice, and an academic setting. She is an accomplished, driven, strategic global healthcare executive with over 25 years of progressive experience in operational excellence, Lean Systems thinking, organizational transformation, international accreditation, and patient safety. She consistently demonstrates the skill to work as a strategic business partner with all levels of corporate governance to create strategies, operations, and work environments that drive profitability and growth, deliver exceptional customer value, and maximize human potential.
Her executive leadership experience ranges from working with small single-facility organizations to a health and care system comprised of 100 hospitals and community-based services. In addition, she has served in Executive roles and provided consulting services globally, including; North and South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
Her consulting expertise focuses primarily on supporting organizations to develop more effective governance and leadership for quality and patient safety processes; enhanced strategic planning and deployment systems; applying high-reliability and operational excellence principles and tools to ensure more repeatable and improved organizational outcomes including client experience, staff experience and engagement and financial health.
Consulting Expertise
Hospital and Health System Consultation Include:
- As a former JCI Consultant, conducted numerous accreditation mock surveys to assess readiness to the JCI standards for Hospitals, Ambulatory Care, and Home Care facilities. Supported organizations to close gaps through consultation and educational solutions and implementing systems to support future ongoing continuous survey readiness.
- Member of the design team and former faculty for the International Health Care Quality Professional Certificate Program jointly developed by Joint Commission International (JCI) and Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University (HBMSU)
- Former Ontario Hospital Association faculty for the Effective Governance for Quality & Patient Safety program
- Co-designed the Burjeel Holdings Nurse Executive Leadership Mastery Program
Selected Clients and Employers
- Canadian Patient Safety Institute (now Healthcare Excellence Canada)
- Alberta Health Services, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
- Dekalb Regional Health System, Decatur, Georgia, USA
- Ministry of Health, Bahamas Government
Areas of Expertise
- Expertise in lean systems thinking and strategy deployment
- Process improvement, quality, and patient safety
- Executive management, consultation, coaching professional education, and facilitation
Industry Expertise
- Hospitals & Home Care Accreditation and Regulatory Compliance
- Effective Governance for Quality & Patient Safety
Former Employers
- Joint Commission International
- Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, UAE
- Health Sciences North, Ontario, Canada
Education
- Master of Science in Human Resource Management & Development, National-Louis University, Atlanta, Georgia USA
- Bachelor of Arts in Applied Behavioral Sciences, National-Louis University, Atlanta, Georgia USA
- Certificate Advance Nursing Education (Honors), University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica
- Diploma General Nursing (RN), Bahamas School of Nursing, Nassau, Bahamas
Professional Memberships and Certifications
- Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ)
- National Association HealthCare Quality
- Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement EXTRA Fellow (2013)
- Advanced Health Leadership Program - Rotman School of Management (2016)