Appointment of New Director of the DPH Bureau of Health Care Safety and Quality

Memorandum

To:            Health Care Facilities and Entities
                 Health Care Organizations and Professional Associations
                 Interested Parties

From:        John Auerbach, Commissioner, Massachusetts Department of Public Health

Subject:   Appointment of New Director of the DPH Bureau of Health Care Safety and Quality

Date:       October 21, 2009

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Alice Bonner, PhD, RN as the new Director of the Department’s Bureau of Health Care Safety and Quality effective 10/13/09.  Alice brings a wide range of valuable professional experiences to this important position, as well as enormous energy and skill.  She is known to many of you through her work as the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Senior Care Foundation.  From 1997-2005 she was the Clinical Director of Long Term Care and Geriatrics at the Fallon Clinic in Worcester, Massachusetts, and served as the Director of Clinical Quality at the Massachusetts Extended Care Federation from 2005 – 2007.  She is the co-chair of the Statewide Falls Prevention Coalition, serves as a member of the Health Care Quality Cost Council’s Patient Safety Committee, and is a board member of the MA Coalition for the Prevention of Medical Errors.

Alice has been a gerontological nurse practitioner for the past 19 years and has maintained a geriatric clinical practice in Central Massachusetts.  She is an Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Nursing, University of Massachusetts in Worcester, MA. Her research interests include the prevention and management of falls in long term care, medication safety and collaborative practice models in long term care utilizing nurse practitioner/physician teams. She earned a BA from Cornell University, a BSN from Columbia University, an MSN from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell and a Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Worcester.

I am very pleased that Alice has joined the Department and know that her extensive knowledge and experience in providing health care services will greatly enhance our ability to serve and protect the health and safety of residents of the Commonwealth.