DIRECT DIFFERENCE TEAM
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
Direct Difference Delivered Timely, Accurate Data Abstraction in support of UCLA Ronald Reagan’s participation in the Society for Vascular Surgery Vascular Quality Initiative. UCLA received a Certificate of Achievement with a Three Star Rating! For more information about SVS/VQI, please go to www.vqi.org. Ask how we can help with your VQI data by clicking here.
Direct Difference Team
Info To Come
Clinical Director of Education and Public Reporting – Mandy Budny, RN, MSN, CPHQ
After an introduction to the healthcare field serving as a Medical Specialist in the U.S. Army, Mandy started her nursing career knowing that she wanted to impact healthcare in a broader, more administrative way. She quickly moved into the field of quality improvement just 2 years later and moved from Performance Improvement Coordinator to Director of Quality and Risk Management in only 3 years. She has devoted almost her entire 17 year nursing career to quality improvement having had oversight for numerous areas to include Performance Improvement, Risk Management, Medical Staff, Infection Prevention, and Environment of Care. Project implementation is nothing new as she also has experience implementing, and seeing through to accreditation, 2 medical residency programs. Mandy’s diverse background in healthcare administration brings a wealth of knowledge to her role with Direct Difference. She has a Master of Science in Nursing Degree and has held CPHQ certification for 13 years.
Chief Quality Officer – Brenda Clemens, RN, MSPSL, BSHA, CPHQ
Brenda Clemens has devoted her thirty-seven year career in healthcare to improving the quality and safety of patient care. Her experiences include patient safety leadership, process improvement (PI), registry and regulatory data management, development of hospital-wide structure, process and outcome standards, nursing management, and staff nursing. The positions she has held include the Director of the Resource Utilization and Outcomes, Nursing Director of Orthopedics, Interim Director of Nursing, Director of Quality Improvement (QI) and Accreditation and most recently, Director of Quality Management Services and Patient Safety. She has worked in both the healthcare system and University environments. She is a Registered Nurse with a Bachelors of Science in Health Care Administration, Masters of Science in Patient Safety Leadership, Six Sigma Green Belt designation and CPHQ Certification.
Her distinguished career includes organizations such as Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center and UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center.
VP of Business Development & Regulatory Reporting – Angella Lott, LPN
Angella has over 20 years of nursing experience, specializing in cardiac/thoracic surgical patients. Her expert knowledge and leadership allowed an easy transition into Quality Data Abstraction for Core Measures, Data Registry, including NCDR, STS, GWTG, NSQIP and more. Angella’s vast experience with large multiple healthcare systems has allowed seamless implementation of new regulatory reporting standards. She also leads data abstractor training across the nation and is recognized as an expert in her field. Over the years Angella has partnered with Nursing Management, Medical Staff and Informatics to incorporate best practices into daily standard of care and discreet documentation.
Seniors Account Manager – STS/Thoracic Data Registry Specialist – Deborah Liverman, RN, BS
Deborah Liverman, RN, BS, with over 40 years of nursing experience including 10 years of critical care experience and management of a Stepdown unit. For the past 18 years, Debbie has supported quality improvement as a Registry Site Manager providing oversight of STS Cardiac, STS Thoracic, NCDR ICD, and more recently NCDR TVT and LAAO Registries for a multi-facility health system. Debbie routinely participates in multiple state-wide cardiac quality consortia where best practices are shared to improve process of care and documentation associated with registry data requirements. She stays up to date with NCDR and STS requirements by attending the annual conferences as well as joining the monthly data manager calls. Debbie brings a wealth of knowledge, experience, and expertise to Direct Difference as an Account Manager and Direct Difference STS Registry Expert. Publications: Implementation of a Continuous Quality Improvement Program for Percutaneous Coronary Intervention and Cardiac Surgery in a large community hospital. American Heart Journal (Volume 152, Issue 2).
