Ann O'Brien, MSN, RN

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  • 2011 Alumni
    Ann O'Brien

National Senior Director of Clinical Informatics

Kaiser Permanente

Pleasanton, CA

Ann OBrien RN MSN   Ann is the National Senior Director of Clinical Informatics/ Transformation Leader at Kaiser Permanente (KP) an integrated delivery system that includes 37 inpatient hospitals and 48, 000 nurses.  Ann leads the Inter-Regional Nursing Governance Group that sets the strategy for the nursing content in KP HealthConnect (KPHC); the largest private electronic health record (EHR) in the world and the only one with 35 hospitals recognized by HIMSS Analytics as Stage 7 in the EHR Adoption Model. Ann's role is unique in that her position is co-sponsored by the Senior Vice President of the Care Delivery Business Information Office of Information Technology (CD BIO) and the Vice President of Patient Care Services.  This synergistic alignment of IT and Nursing support Ann's leadership role that leverages KPHC and innovative technology to transform nursing care processes and improve outcomes.  Since joining KP in 2006, Ann has collaborated with MedicalCenter leadership and the regional KPHC teams to implement and optimize electronic nursing documentation and barcode medication administration across the program.  Ann has demonstrated leadership on many of the nursing and inter-professional initiatives through technology adoption, standardization, governance, performance improvement, research and inter-regional collaboration.   Ann has over 20 years of experience in senior leadership positions in Nursing spanning various levels of management, education, informatics and consulting.  Her current focus is on clinical decision support tools to enhance usability and data mining in the areas of pressure ulcer prevention and falls with injury.  She is also leading an initiative at four KP Medical Centers to select a new tablet form factor to improve access to clinical information at the point of care and enhance nursing workflow.    Ann co-leads the KP-VA Nursing Data Model Collaborative, a national initiative that is leading the Meaningful Use agenda for Nursing. The KP-VA Collaborative developed a nursing practice-based model and for sharing nursing data across organizations and disparate EHRs.  With federal healthcare reform and the accelerating adoption of EHRs, nursing must play a role in transforming care at the bedside.  Ann's experience and her leadership in championing innovation and change make Ann well positioned to lead nursing's future in the areas of nursing informatics and clinical transformation.