Susan M. Grant, MS, RN, NEA, Chief Nursing Officer, Emory Healthcare, Atlanta, GA
 |
When Susan Mitchell Grant became the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) for Emory Healthcare (EHC) in the fall of 2006, she brought her vision-for partnerships and collaboration with patients, families, and professionals-that cuts across disciplines, departments, and settings. Susan, who reports to John T. Fox, CEO of the health system, is responsible for the nursing practice throughout Emory Healthcare, including inpatient care at four hospitals as well as the outpatient clinics. She serves as the Acting Dean, as well as Associate Dean for Clinical Leadership, at Emory University, Nell Hodgson School of Nursing.
Effective executive leadership, across disciplines, is crucial to the successful implementation of Emory Healthcare's vision for partnership and collaboration. Emory Healthcare's strategic plan includes clearly defined goals and measured objectives-which are being tracked-to further the implementation of patient- and family-centered care. One of the goals in the 2008-2012 Strategic Plan is to "Become nationally recognized for transforming health and healing through developing and implementing innovative patient- and family-centered care, research, and teaching models."
A team of EHC leaders is working together with CEO John Fox, Susan Grant, senior leaders, nurses and physicians to implement this vision. Their hope is that Emory Healthcare, along with MCG, will further enhance Georgia's national leadership in patient- and family-centered care in the country.
Emory's vision of patient- and family-centered care, Susan explains, embraces across-the-board implementation. For example, patient- and family-centered care will be evident in the clinics, in professional education, in research studies, throughout the hospital, for its employees, and in its financial administration. In other words, patients and families will work in partnership with health care professionals and staff in every single corner of the organization. Read more about Emory's Nursing Change of Shift Report at the Bedside*
Susan believes that patient- and family-centered care is not something done "for" patients and families; rather, patients and families are truly an integral part of the system. Susan finds that staff members, physicians, trustees, patients, and families are much attuned to this idea. (For more about patient- and family-centered care initiatives at Emory Healthcare, see the article on Emory Healthcare in July/August edition of our Pinwheel Pages E-newsletter.)
 |
Susan has always been passionate about patient- and family-centered care. An event early in her career reinforced the importance of partnering with patients. While a nurse manager at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, two patients received a chemotherapy drug overdose as participants in a Phase 1 experimental clinical trial. One patient died and the other sustained irreversible cardiac toxicity. The medication errors, discovered several months later, occurred because of a misinterpretation of an incorrectly written order. One of the patients who received the drug overdose told staff something was wrong, but the clinicians didn't listen. If staff had listened, although patient outcomes may not have changed, the discovery of these events and subsequent investigation may have happened much sooner. This sentinel event was a turning point for Susan, and it fuels her passion about patient- and family-centered care.
An extensive investigation determined that twenty-five clinicians were involved in that error. As a result, Dana-Farber made fundamental systemic changes that included having patients play key roles to ensure patient safety. Today, the Dana Farber Cancer Institute is a leader in patient- and family-centered care and collaborates with patients and families at all levels of care to enhance patient safety and quality. See www.jcipatientsafety.org/15353.
While a number of issues contributed to the event, one area of major learning was the importance of listening to the patient. Susan and others realized how unsafe it is not to listen to patients. "When we don't involve patients and families in the patient's care . . . the care is not as safe as it could be. A major component is missing when patient and family voices and observations aren't heard." According to Susan, clinicians often mistakenly think they know more than the patient does, but this is not true--- patients and clinicians bring different information to the relationship. The patient knows what he or she is feeling better than anyone else, so the partnership between the patient and the clinician is crucial.
It is essential for clinicians to partner with patients and families. Instead of simply doing "what works for the clinician," patients and their families must not only have the opportunity, but must also have the executive leadership support, to be full partners in the delivery of patient care.
Susan Grant brings to Emory Healthcare a wealth of experience. Most recently, she was the Senior Associate Administrator for Patient Care Services/Chief Nursing Officer at the University of Washington Medical Center and the Assistant Dean for Professional Nursing Practice at the University of Washington School of Nursing in Seattle, WA. She successfully led the Medical Center through two American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) Magnet re-designations, and provided leadership for the implementation of the organization-wide patient and family advisory program. She hopes to do the same at Emory.
While at the University of Washington Medical Center, Susan had the opportunity to plant the seeds for patient- and family-centered care by demonstrating that leadership support can include having the knack to hire the "right" people to do the job. Susan's leadership of the Steering Committee for Patient- and Family-Centered Care ensured that nurses had the means and support to successfully participate in and facilitate collaborative endeavors.
During her more than twenty years of experience, Susan worked in progressively responsible positions. She served as a staff nurse in the coronary care unit at Emory University Hospital in the 1980s, at Kershaw County Hospital and then Medical University of South Carolina in the early 1990s. At Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA, she was Chief of Nursing and Patient Care Services in the late 1990s, before moving to University of Washington's Medical Center in 2000.
Susan's decision to become a nurse was serendipitous. When she started in college, she was thinking about becoming a lawyer. However, she worked as a nursing assistant in a nursing home during college and discovered that she felt a personal connection to those patients. Susan, a certified Nurse Executive Advanced (NEA), received her Bachelor of Science in nursing from the Medical College of Georgia, and her Masters in psychiatric/community mental health nursing from the University of South Carolina. Susan was a Johnson & Johnson/Wharton Nursing Executive Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and was a Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow at the University of California, San Francisco, Center for the Health Professions.
Susan is the recipient of many awards, including awards from Nursing Spectrum, Institute for Safe Medication Practices, and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. She has published articles in professional journals, served on State and National Committees, and is active in various professional nursing organizations.
Susan has spoken at both national and international meetings on patient safety, quality of care, and patient- and family-centered care. But despite Susan's rigorous schedule and commitment to patient- and family-centered care, those most near and dear to her heart, are her husband and her 7-year-old son!