News

Ashtabula Regional Medical Center welcomes new Vice President of Quality, Safety and Patient Experience Angel C. Pannell, DNP, MBA, MSN, RN, CPHQ, CPPS, NE-BC. Ms. Pannell joins ARMC with an extensive background in nursing, quality and performance, safety, and value.

Quality in healthcare represents more than a positive outcome for patients.

“It is what we do, why we do it, and how we do it. We take evidence-based practices that are scientifically driven to improve the care we provide,” Ms. Pannell said. “We know the care we already give is good, but we can be better by using the data we collect to develop best practices and protocols.”

She is an enthusiastic proponent of quality as a partner to all areas of patient care and is committed to ensuring value, accountability, and transparency for ARMC's quality data and reporting.

“It reflects the quality of care patients receive at our facility and reassures our communities that we are providing the best care possible to ensure the best patient outcomes,” Ms. Pannel said.

Quality data is tracked and reported as required for accreditation, reimbursement by Centers for Medicare/Medicaid (CMS), and to meet federal safety guidelines. For example, a key component of quality data is communication, which begins when a patient is being transported to a hospital by ambulance.

“We have a great relationship with our EMS teams in Ashtabula County. From the moment they begin treating a patient, they are communicating with us about the patient’s condition,” she said. “We’ve begun asking them to provide us with a little bit more information such as when certain fluids were started or to give us an estimate of how much fluid was given en route to the hospital. These details help us know how to proceed when the patient arrives at our doors.”

Data about fluid is vital when a medical protocol requires a minimum amount of fluid to be given within a specific timeframe. Knowing how much was given and when it was started lets hospital caregivers know whether they should continue with fluids or begin the next step in the protocol.

A U.S. Army veteran, Ms. Pannell began her nursing education in 2001 following a career as a flight attendant and flight trainer for a global airline, where she also served on the trauma team following the explosion and crash of TWA Flight 800. As her nursing career progressed, she advanced from the Medical-Surgical Department in a Pittsburgh hospital to Interim Chief Nursing Officer and Vice President Quality and Risk for a national hospital and healthcare company in Tennessee. She moved to ARMC after serving as Chief Nursing Officer at a hospital and rehabilitative healthcare system in Pittsburgh, PA.

“As much as I loved working day-to-day and face-to-face with patients, I wanted a seat at the table to be making those decisions that directly affected the care patients receive,” Ms. Pannell said. To that end, she earned her master’s degree in Nursing, an MBA in Business and Healthcare Administration and a doctorate in Nursing Practice.

Ms. Pannell said throughout each of her careers, teamwork was the key to success, either as a soldier, flight attendant, nurse or hospital administrator. “We always focused on the goal, but it took all of us working together to ensure a positive outcome. It is like that from a quality perspective. Quality is more than just the data. We use that data to ensure we are doing our best for the patients we see.”

To help her remember that tenet, she keeps a purple butterfly on her desk – a gift from a pediatric patient under her care many years ago. “It reminds me every day of our purpose. I made a difference in someone’s life, and they thanked me by giving me this gift,” Ms. Pannell said.