American Health Information Community: Members

Lillee Smith Gelinas RN, MSN VHA Inc.

220 East Las Colinas Blvd.
Irving, Texas 75039
972-830-0239
lgelinas@vha.com

Lillee Gelinas, RN, MSN, Vice President – Clinical Performance, has 29 years of experience in healthcare including five years in the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps. She is dedicated to helping healthcare organizations accomplish their mission with a sustainable competitive advantage through effective leadership and performance improvement. She supports patient care, operations and supply chain initiatives aimed at achieving performance excellence by working with health care organizations and regional offices to “close the quality gap” through VHA’s performance improvement agenda. Education: She attended Louisiana State University, earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and a master’s degree in nursing, with honors, from the University of Pennsylvania where she also studied at the Wharton School of Business. Achievements and Key Current Appointments:

• VHA Inc.
• VHA Supply Company: 1986-1991
• VHA’s first chief nursing officer, 1991
• Consulting Services leadership team: 1998 – 2001
• Clinical Affairs/Clinical Services leadership team: 2001 – 2003
• Clinical and Business Services Division: 2003 - current
• National workforce champion for VHA’s Tomorrow’s Work Force initiative:
• 2000-2003
• Nursing and nursing leaders champion, 1986 – current
• Studied and published findings on the changing role of nursing leaders since 1993
• NQF (National Quality Forum)
• Co-chair, Nursing Care Performance Measures Committee, 2003
• Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
• Nursing Leadership Roundtable: 2003, 2004
• NQF Nursing Sensitive Measures Research Committee: 2004 - 2005
• Exempla Healthcare – Denver, Colorado,
• Board member: 2002 – current
• Chair, Governance Committee
• Institute of Medicine
• Committee member and Agenda Subcommittee Chair, Institute of Medicine Crossing the Quality Chasm Summit January, 2004
• Redesigning Health Insurance Benefits, Payment and Performance Improvement Programs: subcommittee on Performance Measures, 2004 - 2005
• JCAHO (Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations)
• Nursing roundtable to address the nursing shortage, 2001
• Nursing Advisory Council, 2002 – current
• John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Awards – Judge, 2003 and 2004
• Hospital Standards Advisory Group – 2004
• National Patient Safety Foundation
• Annual congress planning committee and faculty 2003 – current
• Institute for Health Care Improvement
• 1993 – one of first Break-Through Series Trainers
• Faculty for annual IHI National Forum since 1995
• UTA School of Nursing (University of Texas at Arlington)
• Adjunct Clinical Instructor, 2002 – current
• Honor societies of Sigma Theta Tau (nursing excellence) and Phi Kappa Phi (academic excellence)
• Nationally recognized speaker on clinical, health care management and nursing issues averaging 40+ presentations per year