Nursing Home Quality - The QIS Experts

Peter J. Kramer, Sr. Vice President and Chief Operating Officer - Peter has over 25 years of experience as a medical industry business owner and senior level executive. He has extensive background in the development and implementation of quality systems, and in Federal and State regulatory compliance. Peter provides valuable expertise for the development of Nursing Home Quality's assessment and quality improvement tools, and the training materials and methods to implement them. Peter received his B.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Danielle Holthaus, Vice President of Operations - Danielle has worked in the fields of health care and health policy research for over ten years. She has directed several large-scale, federally funded projects focusing on post-acute and long-term care, and served as a member of the University of Colorado management team for the QIS Demonstration project. She has extensive experience in project management, program operations, grant administration, and personnel management. Danielle received her B.S. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
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Matt J. Morris, Vice President of Engineering and Technology- Matt has managed software and system architecture development for over ten years, creating technology solutions in health care, encryption and behavioral research. He has directed the development of web-based software and graphical user interfaces for the health care industry dedicated to collecting and electronically transmitting data for analysis and reporting. Matt earned a B.A. from Emory University, where he also performed post-graduate work in mathematical modeling and data analysis.
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Cindy Mason, Vice President of Provider Services - Cindy's professional background of over 25 years of advising nursing home administrators and staff make her ideally suited to assist nursing homes in assessing and refining systems for survey success. Cindy provides education, quality assurance system analysis and implementation, and consultation to nursing home providers. Licensed as a clinical social worker, nursing home administrator, health care risk manager, and accredited as a QIS instructor, she translates complex regulatory requirements into concepts that can be applied to managing the daily operations of nursing home life. As a long term care consultant, staff educator, and national speaker, Cindy has worked with all levels of nursing home staff on regulatory compliance and skill development. Cindy has worked extensively with consumers of care whose perspective is critically important in survey success.

Bob Feurer, Director of Finance- Bob has over ten years of operations and financial management experience. He has extensive experience with high-growth technology companies in both the software and managed services industries. He has successfully raised venture funding rounds as well as secured large commercial debt funding. Bob's expertise is critical to ensuring Nursing Home Quality is able to grow and reach as many customers and facilities as possible. Bob earned his B.B.A. from Kent State University and his M.B.A. from the University of Arizona.

Ellen Sandler, Director of Marketing - Ellen has over five years experience in marketing, advertising, brand management and communications, with extensive experience in marketing to government-regulated medical industries. Ellen develops and implements marketing and branding strategies that build upon Nursing Home Quality's position as the national leader in Quality Indicator Survey based quality assurance solutions and training. Ellen received her B.S. from the University of Colorado.

Jane Hermanson, Director of Training - Jane has over 15 years of experience as a Long Term Care Surveyor and Program Manager in the State of Colorado, and is a Certified QIS trainer. Her expertise in nutrition and nursing home quality of life, combined with her extensive quality and regulatory background provides an important source of knowledge and understanding for Nursing Home Quality. Jane has played a central role in organizing and implementing State agency QIS training programs for Connecticut, Kansas, Ohio, Louisiana, California and Florida as part of the original University of Colorado training team. Specifically, she has conducted QIS classroom training, QIS mock survey training, both on-site and off-site compliance assessments for QIS surveys of record, and responded to questions about QIS protocol from agency and field survey teams. In addition, she has been instrumental in the development of web-based training modules, training materials, and classroom protocols for the QIS. Jane earned her B.S. from Iowa State University and her MBA from University of Colorado.
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Operations

Hollie Justice, Executive Assistant – Hollie has over 13 years of professional experience assisting executives, and possesses advanced skills in office computer programs. She supports the two senior executive officers and owners of the company on all forms of electronic communications and time management. She prepares written documents, manages the corporate office, and coordinates extensive travel schedules and business meetings.

Laura Whalen, Customer Support Manager - Laura is a Computer Science major with over ten years experience in application software support and data analysis. She has trained and provided daily support on various software applications, resolved issues and problems, provided solutions, created training manuals, and documented data elements, data work flow and processes. As the Customer Support Manager, Laura drives the development and implementation of customer support programs, trains and supervises other customer support personnel, maintains metrics and makes recommend strategies for ongoing customer support.

Vanessa Golembeski, Project Coordinator- Vanessa comes to us from Washington D.C. with extensive experience in coordinating large-scale events and programming. Vanessa’s concentration in government affairs, focusing particularly in legislative and regulatory matters led her to collaborate with local and federal air agencies on a variety of projects. As a project coordinator for Nursing Home Quality, Vanessa utilizes her considerable experience to coordinate of training courses, Nursing Home Quality conferences, and the implementation of the Quality Indicator Survey in conjunction with the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare. Vanessa received her B.A. from the University of Colorado.

Training Staff

Karen Alms, Senior QIS Training and Clinical Consultant - Karen is a Certified QIS trainer who has been a Registered Nurse since 1991 and a licensed Nursing Home Administrator. She offers a unique blend of four years experience as an Administrator and Director of Nursing for the first certified Eden alternative nursing facility in Colorado, and five years experience as a Colorado Long-Term Care Surveyor. Karen has conducted numerous QIS classroom trainings, mock surveys, compliance surveys and compliance audits for new QIS survey teams in Connecticut, Kansas, Ohio, Louisiana, California and Florida as part of the original University of Colorado training team. She has contributed regularly to the ongoing improvement of the QIS Resource Training Manual and she has been thoroughly involved in the development of training materials and classroom protocols for the QIS. Karen received her RN from Front Range Community College.

Joy Thompson, Master QIS Trainer - Joy's background in healthcare includes thirty years as a registered nurse with experience in long term care, home health, and hospital infant intensive care. During her fifteen years with the Ohio Department of Health, Joy served as a long term care Surveyor, Assistant District Office Supervisor, State Coordinator for MDS, OASIS, and NATCEP, and Section Chief in the Bureau of Long Term Care Quality. She recently served as Nurse Consultant and Training Coordinator for CMS Region V, where she developed training plans and orientation schedules for new federal surveyors, and conducted Federal Oversight Surveys and comparative surveys. As Supervisor for the QIS demonstration in Ohio, Joy coordinated all QIS activities, including surveyor selection, facility site selection, supervision of mock surveys and surveys of record, and QIS training. Joy received her A.D.N from Miami University.

Robin Harper, Master QIS Trainer - Robin has been a registered nurse for over fourteen years, and has experience in private health care, long term care, and as a charge nurse in a hospital surgical unit. While serving as a long term care surveyor for the Ohio Department of Health, Robin was chosen as one of two surveyors from the Dayton district office to participate in the QIS pilot project in Ohio. She completed QIS classroom training, mock surveys, and compliance surveys, and has conducted numerous QIS surveys of record as Team Leader. As the Ohio QIS Team Leader, Robin was involved in training new surveyors, technical troubleshooting, and assuring team compliance to protocol. Robin received her A.D.N from Sinclair Community College.

Product Development

Matt Emge, Quality Assurance Engineer - Matt has ten years of experience in set-up, support and administration of high-technology applications on both desktops and servers. He works with software engineers to develop test plans, create automated acceptance tests, and conduct manual testing to ensure quality of software products. Matt also manages the Nursing Home Quality’s bug tracking database.

Pete Fahlenkamp, Information Technology Manager - Pete worked for more than 11 years for the University of Colorado, where he was responsible for security of 200 lab machines and the servers that supported them. Most recently, he had overseen the campus mail servers for 90,000 student e-mail accounts as well as the MS Exchange server for 1,200 faculty and staff. As Information Technology Manager, Pete manages Nursing Home Quality’s information technology resources, implements IT security measures and resolves staff computer system issues nationwide.

Krishnan Kannan, Business Systems Architect - Krishnan has experience in various state-of-the-art computer programs. He is a certified programmer in several products such as Java and XML, and has technical expertise in a host of other well known applications. In addition to 16 years working in progressively higher level computer application positions, he has a Masters in computer information Systems, a Master of computer applications, and a B.S. in Physics. Krishnan is responsible for the development of Nursing Home Quality’s software platform and product offering.

Kendra Lawlor, Senior Software Developer - Kendra has developed numerous Web, database, and data mining applications for the health care sector, as well as programs for statistical reporting and calculation through her work with the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. In particular, she has created applications to import MDS and CMS data in printable reports, as well as data mining programs that enable users to query patient data, specific outcomes, and case mix measures. Kendra received certification in Computer Programming from Denver University, and her M.A. and B.A. at St. John’s University and Marist College.

Ian Schreuder, Senior Architect - Ian possesses an extensive background in managing software development, system administration, network configuration and technical staff. He has directed the development and deployment of Internet applications and large database systems, and is proficient in numerous data and analysis, as well as security and Web applications. Ian received his B.A. and M.S. from the University of Colorado.

Jennifer Waltz, User Experience Analyst - Jen's experience in Web site and Web application design includes structural optimization and requirements gathering as well as facilitating various forms of user testing and focus groups, and audience analysis. She has served as Project Manager and User Interface Designer for the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, where her work included developing usable interfaces for cutting-edge Web applications that capture and record research data.