Terri Straub is an independent health care consultant recognized for her work in bringing transformational changes to health care organizations through effective policy adoption, health care technology and innovation, and workforce redesign. Ms. Straub has a strong track record of bringing both senior leadership and frontline staff together to develop strategic approaches and practical solutions in designing, implementing, and evaluating sustainable organizational opportunities to improve outcomes, patient satisfaction, cost containment, and workforce turnover. Over the past ten years, Ms. Straub has done extensive work with the 1199 RNLMI, RNTJSF, and LMP. Most notably, she has worked with front line staff to develop quality and infection prevention coaches; improve systems and reduce waste within their organizations; and help position frontline workers for the changes in the healthcare delivery system related to the Affordable Care Act. Ms. Straub’s approach to quality and patient centered care is to eliminate the traditional focus on “projects” and help organizations develop infrastructure and champions at all levels of the health care team in an effort to elevate the visibility of hospitals for their work in creating a culture of patient safety. Ms.Straub has spoken widely on topics related to the health care workforce, quality, and system re-engineering.
Ms. Straub joined the Hunter College faculty as an adjunct, teaching health policy and leadership, in Spring 2010, and held a prior adjunct faculty position at Hofstra University. Prior to becoming an independent consultant, Ms. Straub served for eight years, as the Vice President of Quality and Patient Safety at the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA), where she worked on health policy, advocacy, emergency preparedness, and workforce. In her role at GNYHA, she developed innovative programs to assist hospitals in improving performance on quality reporting and meet the myriad reporting demands of state and federal agencies. During her tenure at GNYHA, she played a pivotal role in developing the NYS infection reporting legislation and was recognized by the Association for Professionals in Infection Prevention and The Center for Disease Control for her efforts in reducing infections.
Before joining GNYHA, Ms. Straub was the Senior Director of the Health Care Quality Improvement Program at IPRO, the quality improvement organization for New York State. At IPRO, she was part of the team that launched the first effort by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services to improve quality and patient safety of the Medicare population. Before entering into the field of health care policy, quality, and patient safety, Ms. Straub spent over 12 years working in hospital administration and practicing in surgery, critical care and adult and pediatric emergency nursing. Ms. Straub has served on national boards for quality and patient safety organizations and is currently serving on the Hunter School of Nursing Advisory Board.