Faculty

Assoc Professor Bernie Harrison

• Associate Professor University of Sydney School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health
• Director of the ACHS Improvement Academy

Bernie Harrison has over 30yrs experience in health care, as a clinician, researcher and quality and safety (Q&S) expert.

She has extensive experience in designing and delivering Q&S training programs in the Asia pacific region. Her training in quality improvement and patient safety occurred in the USA in 2001 and 2010 as a Fulbright Scholar. She has extensive experience in health care system redesign and has published a Breakthrough Collaborative (Harrison et al Vox Sanguinis 2014) in improving red cell transfusion in the elective surgical setting. She co-authored the Quality in Australian Health Care Study (MJA 1995), the most cited paper in the journal’s 100yr history.

Her previous positions include: Executive Director of Hospital Performance for the National Health Performance Authority and Director in the NSW Clinical Excellence Commission. Her clinical experience as a registered nurse and midwife in the UK and Australia: maternity and child health, intensive care, aged care and mental health.

Mr Anthony Lock

• Founding Director, Nexus Human Performance Training Royal Perth Bentley Group
• Managing Director of ASCEND – Human Performance and Leadership Development
• RAAF, Reserve Squadron Leader Pilot
• Air Transport Pilot’s License holder – Boeing 737 Domestic and International Operations

With over 6000 flying hours on various high-performance aircraft and working with Special Forces Teams around the world, Anthony has extensive experience within the military and aviation industries. During his military flying career, Anthony developed an expertise for working within high-stress situations, whether during combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, humanitarian/peacekeeping missions throughout Asia or during instructional and training missions in Australia.

During this time Anthony saw immense value in leadership and Human Factors (HF) training (Crew Resource Management) and became a HF specialist for fellow pilots and aircrew members. This also included work in automation management and engineering modifications of cockpit systems in single seat aircraft and critical mission system solutions in large transport aircraft.

On leaving the RAAF, he flew for a well-known Australian airline where his HF experience and teachings was employed.

In 2017 Anthony was appointed as the Director of Patient Safety & Human Performance at Royal Perth and Bentley Hospital’s and led the development of Australia’s first hospital wide, Safety Critical Industry based, Human Factors training course – NEXUS.  In collaboration with experienced HF clinical and non-clinical staff, and researchers from the Universities of Western Australia and Curtin, NEXUS is proving to benefit not only patient safety but staff workplace satisfaction and assisting leaders throughout the organisation.  Anthony works in collaboration with the NSW Clinical Excellence Commission, the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards and the University Centre for Rural health in Lismore.

Dr Brent James

• Clinical Professor (Affiliated), Dept of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine

Brent James is known internationally for his work in clinical quality improvement, patient safety, and the infrastructure that underlies successful improvement efforts, such as culture change, data systems, payment methods, and management roles.

He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine (formerly known as the Institute of Medicine), and participated in that organization’s seminal works on quality and patient safety.

He is a Clinical Professor at the Clinical Excellence Research Center (CERC), Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine.He holds adjunct faculty appointments at several other universities:

• Visiting Lecturer, Harvard School of Public Health (Health Policy and Management)
• Adjunct Professor, University of Utah David Eccles School of Business
• Adjunct Professor, University of Utah School of Medicine (Family Medicine; Biomedical Informatics)

He is a Fellow of the American College of Physician Executives.He is presently a Senior Advisor at Health Catalyst, Salt Lake City, UT; Senior Fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), Boston, MA; and a Senior Advisor at the Leavitt Group, Salt Lake City, UT.

He is was formerly Chief Quality Officer, and Executive Director, Institute for Healthcare Delivery Research at Intermountain Healthcare, based in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Through the Intermountain Advanced Training Program in Clinical Practice Improvement (ATP), he has personally trained more than 5,000 senior physician, nursing, and administrative executives, drawn from around the world, in clinical management methods, with proven improvement results (and leading to over 50 “sister” training programs in more than 10 countries).

He currently anchors an upgraded version of the ATP, Mastering Clinical Quality / Leading Clinical Change (MCQ), based at Health Catalyst in Salt Lake City, UT.

He has been honored with a series of awards for quality in health care delivery, including (among many):

• 2018 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety & Quality Individual Award, Joint Commission & National Quality Forum, March 2019
• Distinguished Alumnus, University of Utah, 2015
• Deming Cup – Columbia University School of Business, 2011
• C. Jackson Grayson Medal, Distinguished Quality Pioneer – American Quality and Productivity Center, 2010
• Joint Commission Ernest A. Codman Award, 2006 AHA HRET TRUST Award, 2005
• National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) Quality Award, 2005 American College of Medical Quality Founders’ Award, 1999

For 8 of first the 9 years it existed, he was named among Modern Physician’s “50 Most Influential Physician Executives in Healthcare.” He was named among the “100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare” (Modern Healthcare) for over 5 consecutive years, and among Modern Healthcare’s “25 Top Clinical Informaticists”.

Before coming to Utah in 1986, he was Assistant Professor in the Department of Biostatistics at the Harvard School of Public Health, providing statistical support for the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) and Cancer & Leukemia, Group B (CALG); and staffed the American College of Surgeons’ Commission on Cancer.

He holds the following degrees;

• Bachelor of Science degrees inComputer Science (Electrical Engineering) and
• Medical Biology; an
• M.D. degree (with residency training in general surgery and oncology); and a
• Master of Statistics degree.

He serves on several non-profit boards of trustees dedicated to clinical improvement and patient safety.

Dr Cathy Balding

• Managing Director of Qualityworks PL

Cathy Balding is managing director of Qualityworks PL, a business dedicated to helping health services fulfil their potential for creating great care.  She cut her quality teeth in rural quality improvement, and over two decades has worked in health services, policy development, academia and now in her own business.

Her career is focused on supporting improvement practitioners, boards and executives with practical approaches to governing and leading safe, quality care, using a strategic quality system model developed through research and experience.

She trains and supports the model implementation via workshops, online training and her books: ‘Create a Great Quality System Blueprint’ and ‘The Strategic Quality Manager Handbook’. 

Mrs Helen Eccles

• ACHS Consultant Assessor / Educator

Helen Eccles has over 40 year’s experience in health care as a clinician, educator, manager, and director of clinical services.  Her health leadership roles include Executive, Director of Nursing / Midwifery in public hospitals, Director of Learning and Development and Healthcare Consultant.

Helen’s passions include promoting patient safety and quality through clinical governance, partnering with consumers, evidence based practice, innovative leadership and management, creating an environment for professional growth and individualised development.

Helen is an experienced ACHS assessor with a wide variety of survey experience across a range of healthcare settings. She is also an ACHS Educator and Faculty Member of the ACHS Improvement Academy.  Helen is involved in the development and provision of education programs for both surveyors and the healthcare industry in general.

Ms Helen Ganley

• Data Scientist, Royal North Shore Hospital
• Principal Data Sanity

Helen Ganley has over 20 years’ experience as an improvement facilitator at Northern Sydney Local Health District.

In 2000, as part of her Masters’ degree, she developed a Statistical Thinking and Methods Program which won a NSW Health award for Innovation in Information Management. Three improvement projects using STaMP™ have been published in international peer-reviewed journals with one is still utilised for academic reading in Australia and the U.S. Projects related to falls, length of stay and results reporting have won national and international quality awards. Her statistical newsletter, STATUM, is published on the NHS (UK) website.

As Principal for Data Sanity, Helen has consulted on and taught statistical thinking and methods to many public and private health organisations. She is often commissioned to produce reports for quality committees and Boards. Helen has lectured at Macquarie University, the University of Technology, Sydney, and the NSW Ministry of Health’s Redesign course.

Since 2016, she has been a member of the faculty of the Improvement Academy, Australian Council on Healthcare Standards. Helen presents one-day seminars on statistical thinking and methods as well as Minitab™ statistical software workshops.

Ms Katie Robinson

• Grad Cert Health Services management (Quality and Safety)
• Grad Cert Sexual Health
• Grad Cert Forensic Nursing

Katie has over 25 years of diverse experience in clinical care, management, and senior leadership roles including acute care, primary care, public health, and community health, catering to both adult and paediatric populations.

Katie has demonstrated a commitment to serving diverse communities, including time spent working in remote and rural areas and with First Nations communities. As a Palawa woman (Tasmanian Aboriginal), she brings a unique perspective and cultural sensitivity to her work. 

Katie is also a published researcher, having contributed to a paper on a novel gel-based method for self-collection of pathology samples (BMJ) and a graduate of the ACHS Quality Improvement Lead (QIL) program. Her passion for improvement led her to spend 12 months on the ACHS Improvement Academy faculty before transitioning to a full-time role, where she continues to inspire excellence in healthcare practice.

Her previous roles include Quality and Safety Infection Control, Nursing Director and clinical leadership roles in sexual health, forensic nursing and statewide project management. Early clinical roles include critical care areas of ICU, ORS and ED.

Ms Lucy Lehane

• Clinical Educator Quality and Safety, ACHS Improvement Academy

Lucy has extensive clinical and leadership experience as a nurse in intensive care, acute community and cancer care in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. Prior to joining the ACHS Improvement Academy, she worked as the Quality, Safety, and Infection Control Specialist Nurse at Chris O’Brien Lifehouse, Sydney where she had responsibilities in all aspects of the clinical safety and quality system including management of the infection control program.

Professor Maxine Power

• Director of Innovation and Improvement Science, Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust
• Managing Director, Haelo

Maxine Power is the Director of Innovation and Improvement Science at Salford Royal, providing strategic leadership, improvement expertise and delivery support for large scale change programmes being delivered locally in Salford, regionally with partners (MAHSC and GM AHSN) and nationally (NHS England and NHS QUEST). Salford Royal partners with Salford Clinical Commissioning Group and Salford City Council in a joint improvement venture (Haelo) a centre which hosts improvement experts, clinicians and researchers.

Her prior work experience includes: the NHS Department of Health Quality Innovation, Productivity and Prevention team (QIPP) as a National Improvement Advisor. She was the Director of the Improvement Alliance for NHS North West. She is a non-executive director (governor) on the Board of Governors of the Health Foundation and sit on its Improvement Science Development Group.

Assoc Professor Peter Hibbert

• Program Manager, Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Faculty of Medicine Macquarie University

Peter Hibbert started his health career as a physiotherapist working in Australia and the United Kingdom for 12 years. Currently, he supports Chief Investigators to manage a $10.8 million grant researching translating safe care into practice. He was an author of the Care Track Australia study – the first population-based multi-condition study of the level of evidence-based care delivered to Australian patients.

He has worked a patient safety consultant and an ACHS presenter running training programs in root cause analysis and patient safety.  Prior to these roles, he was the Associate Director of Patient Safety at the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) in London, England where he led and managed clinical teams aiming to reduce preventable patient harm in health care across England and Wales.

Mr Peiter Walker

• Healthcare Consultant & Strategist

Pieter Walker is a seasoned healthcare consultant with over 33 years of experience in strategy, governance, change management, and leadership training across public and private sectors globally. As Principal of Pieter Walker Consultancy, he has led major healthcare reforms, system reviews, and executive leadership programs.

For over two decades, Pieter was the lead consultant for The Health Roundtable, facilitating improvement workshops for over 200 hospitals using benchmarked data to drive innovation, improvement, governance, and patient outcomes. Previously, he served as National Head of Quality, Safety & Improvement for a large hospital network and has advised industries including Defence, Australia Post, various government agencies, and NGOs.

A Fellow and Deputy Chief Examiner of the Australasian College of Health Service Managers, Pieter mentors and leads strategic healthcare initiatives. He currently runs leadership programs for the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre and is consulting in AI in health care. He remains dedicated to innovation, sustainability, and excellence in healthcare transformation.

Ms Sandy Thomson

• ACHS Lead Assessor / Educator

Sandy Thomson, with over 30 years in senior health services management, specialises in quality systems, risk management, governance, and accreditation. As Lead Assessor and Educator with ACHS, she advises Australian and international healthcare organizations. Sandy holds a Masters in Health Service Management and is a Fellow of multiple prestigious associations. She's published in clinical governance and actively contributes to professional committees. Awarded for Business Excellence, Sandy's leadership extends to national councils and presentations at industry conferences. Co-author of health management publications, her expertise shapes quality care paradigms internationally and domestically.

Ms Sarah Michael

Sarah Michael is a Registered Nurse with over 40 years’ experience in the health sector. Sarah’s professional pathway includes roles from being a registered nurse and manager in intensive care to quality / clinical governance / management roles at a hospital, health service, and state levels, consulting across Australia and New Zealand, and culminating in the last thirteen years working at St Vincent’s Health Australia across acute, sub-acute, public, private and aged care sectors. 

Sarah has specific expertise in clinical governance (both strategic and operational), incident management and investigations, patient experience, policy development, organisational change, benchmarking and reporting, knowledge management and quality and safety education and training. 

Sarah was a contributor to the Quality in Australian Health Care Study (MJA 1995) and co-authored the Chapter Clinical Governance and Risk Management for Medical Administrators (Springer 2023). Sarah was also part of the team at NSW Health to develop and roll out the inaugural Root Cause Analysis program in the early 2000’s, that remains the corner stone of incident management / systems thinking investigation tools across Australia and a program she remains passionate about today. 

Ms Shelley Thomson

• Director, Experience 360

Shelley is a patient experience advisor, author of ‘Patients For Life’, and accomplished keynote speaker. Her career in the healthcare industry spans more than 30 years, across clinical, operational and commercial sectors, with particular experience in nuclear medicine and ultrasound.

Through her company Experience 360, Shelley delivers sustainable, patient-centred operating models, using service design, journey mapping and training expertise, to businesses who aspire to develop long-term patient relationships based on trust and loyalty. She uses a unique set of strategies based on her experience, real-world results and the latest scientific research to generate faster organisation/practice growth and better outcomes for patients, relatives, staff, practice managers and the community.

Shelley believes that the patient experience is not just about the check-up and diagnosis, and that open communication, listening, trust and empathy hold the key to sound, positive, healthy patient experiences.

Mrs Tammy Doyle

• ACHS Root Cause Analysis (RCA) Trainer

Tammy Doyle has more than 25 years experience in health care, as a clinician and Quality and Safety (Q&S) expert.

Since 2009, Tammy has worked as Patient Safety Clinical Nurse Consultant, in the Sunshine Coast Hospital and Health Service (SCHHS).  During this time, Tammy has gained extensive experience in how to successfully lead Root Cause Analysis (RCA) and Open Disclosure teams, and knowledge of the legislative requirements for the management of reportable events.

Tammy has experience in designing and delivering local and state-wide Q&S training programs including Root Cause Analysis (RCA), Human Factors, and Clinical Incident Management.

Tammy’s passions include actively leading and contributing to activities that support safe patient-focused care and a positive safety culture.

Ms Tonia Easton

• Specialities: General Nursing, Acute Care, Intensive Care, Rural, Midwifery, Safety, Quality and Risk Management, Incident Management, Clinical Governance and Policy Development
• Commenced assessing in 2010 

Ms Easton is an experienced health care professional having held senior management roles in Clinical Nursing and Management, Safety and Quality, Risk Management and Clinical Governance in rural and tertiary hospitals.

Ms Easton is consultant to healthcare facilities focusing on organisational change management, quality systems, risk management, clinical governance and the application of the National Safety Quality Health Service Standards (NSQHS).

Ms Easton has been a Lead Assessor for 10 years and an Assessor for 14 years. During this time, she has surveyed over 100 public and private healthcare organisations and mental health services across Australia, Hong Kong and the United Emirates.

Ms Easton has a particular interest in health service governance and structures, developing effective solutions to support the implementation of risk management frameworks, establishing effective consumer engagement and partnership models and embodying safety and quality systems for improvement and service delivery outcomes across health services (general and mental health).

Ms Easton has expertise in Acute Care Services, Mental Health, Drug and Alcohol, Correctional Services, Rural and Remote and Quality Improvement and process redesign methodologies with a focus on improving service and patient outcomes. 

Most recently Ms Easton has been involved with the gazetting of mental health beds in preparation for a new hospitals’ opening, the review of medication safety practices across a large maximum secuirty prison and consultations and needs assessments against the NSQHS Standards V2.

Tonia’s broad experience has provided her with an understanding of the challenges that face the provision of Health Services across a range of facilities along with an acute awareness of the challenges relating to health care services in rural and remote areas of Australia.

Ms Yvonne McCann

• Accreditation Assessor

Yvonne McCann has more than 40 year's experience working at national, state, area and local health services as a clinician, educator, manager and in senior management positions.

Yvonne has worked in most Australia States in teaching, metropolitan and regional hospitals, community and health departments. She has worked in a variety of services as a frontline clinician, educator and manager. Yvonne was a participant in an Australian American Nurse Exchange program and study tour.

She has a keen interest in continuous improvement, education and workforce support. Yvonne was an ACHS Assessor for almost 15 years and also a Coordinator for 3 years during that time.