Webcast Transcript: When Nurses Lead the Way on Quality Improvement and Patient Safety

Good morning. Thank you for joining Modern Healthcare's editorial webcast. Today, we'll listen to a discussion with three nurse executives on initiatives at a growing number of hospitals and health systems where nurses are leading the way on new approaches to quality improvement.

Recent studies have concluded that promoting patient safety in the hospital setting will require dramatic cultural shifts, less hierarchy and more collaboration among nurses, physicians and other caregivers. Before we begin our webcast, we have a few housekeeping items to address: Your phones will stay in listen-only mode during the entire webcast.

However, listeners can send questions throughout the event. Our moderator will try to ask as many as possible before the hour is up. You can find the questions window on the right-hand side of your screen connected to the webcast dashboard that appeared when you first joined the call. A recording of today's discussion will be available on our website, ModernHealthcare.com.

Within a few days, all attendees will receive a follow-up e-mail, including a link to that recording. Now, I'd like to turn the webcast over to Maureen McKinney, Modern Healthcare's patient-safety reporter and the moderator for today's webcast. She will introduce our panelists.