Certified Professional in Health Care Risk Management Exam Prep Course

Joyce Benton is an independent risk management consultant, providing customized risk management and patient safety consultation services for healthcare organizations and insurance companies. Prior to this, Joyce served as assistant vice president of healthcare risk control at CNA Insurance, servicing aging services, acute care, allied healthcare and life sciences customers. In her career, she also served as the director of quality management and safety at an acute care hospital in the suburbs of Atlanta. In that role, she developed the risk management and infection control programs and assisted in restructuring the safety, workers’ compensation and quality improvement programs at the facility. She is a frequent speaker on healthcare risk management and has authored numerous publications on healthcare risk management.

She earned a Diploma Degree in Nursing from Georgia Baptist Hospital School of Nursing, a Bachelor of Science in Health Arts from College of St. Francis and a Master of Science in Administration from Central Michigan University. She is an active member of the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM), served on ASHRM’s 2003-2004 Board of Directors, faculty for Certified Professional in Healthcare Risk Management (CPHRM) study course as well as healthcare risk management certification program, and chairman of the 2018 Nominating Committee. Joyce was the recipient of ASHRM’s Excellence in Writing Award in 1999, Distinguished Service Award (DSA) in 2005 and Presidential Citation Award in 2014. In 2010, she received the Distinguished Alumni Award for Excellence in Clinical Development by Georgia Baptist College of Nursing at Mercer University.

Doug joined Premier Insurance Management Services in 2017, and currently serves as VP, Risk & Quality. With broad experience in the fields of insurance, claims, and risk management, Doug serves on the executive leadership team and is responsible for all operations and customized risk management services for the members of American Excess Insurance Exchange (AEIX) as well as strategic planning for annual improvement projects and collaboratives. Prior to joining Premier, Doug was the Assistant VP, Risk Management for Duke University Health System, where he managed the day-to-day operations of the system’s captive insurance company including both risk financing and loss control activities. He holds a BS in Biology from Eastern Mennonite University and earned his Master’s in Health Administration from the Medical College of Virginia (VCU). With more than 38 years of healthcare and clinical risk management experience, he has presented nationally on various topics, serves as faculty for several industry courses, and has contributed to a number of publications, including a chapter in the fifth edition of ASHRM’s Risk Management Handbook. He has a history of leadership in the field of healthcare risk management, serving on boards and committees at both the state and national level. He has been twice-elected president of the North Carolina Chapter of ASHRM, served as the President of the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM) in 2008, and is a current member of the NC Chapter of ASHRM Board of Directors. Doug has served as faculty for ASHRM’s CPHRM Prep Class since 1994.

Ms. Gaffey is the President of Healthcare Risk and Safety Strategies. She is an industry-recognized career risk management and patient safety professional with over thirty-five years of experience in healthcare, having served as the 2016 President of the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management. Ann provides innovative consultative services to healthcare organizations across the care continuum to develop, improve and enhance enterprise risk management and patient safety programs. She has a passion for leading organizational change, coaching and mentoring teams and individuals to lead effective and efficient enterprise-wide risk management programs.

Ms. Gaffey’s broad experience across all facets of the health care delivery system has included traditional risk assessment and mitigation activities, managing self-insurance and captive insurance programs, insurance purchasing, liability claims management, and general enterprise risk management program development.

Ann is a frequent national speaker on topics related to risk reduction and management strategies in healthcare, enterprise risk management, and leadership. Ann has authored articles in the Journal of Healthcare Risk Management, co-authored in the Risk Management Handbook for Healthcare Organizations, 6th edition, Healthcare Risk Management Fundamentals, and other publications.

In addition to her work with ASHRM and affiliated state chapters, Ann’s involvement includes:

• 2019 Visiting Expert, Ministry of Health, Singapore
• Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine (SIDM), Board Member (2020-2024)
• Coalition to Improve Diagnosis Advisory Task Force (2015-2020); Member, Advisory Council (2019-Present)
• National Perinatal Information Center, Board Member (2014-present), Chair (2019-2020)
• National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCC MERP) (2008-present); Vice-Chairperson (2011-2015 and 2018-2021)
• Technical Expert, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Making Health Care Safer III Technical Expert Panel
• Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI), Committee on Best Practices for Selecting and Purchasing Complex Technology, Member (2017 – 2019)

Ms. Gaffey received her degree from the University of Virginia with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. She also received her Master of Science in Nursing Leadership and Management from George Washington University. Ann has achieved the CPHRM and DFASHRM designations and was awarded the ASHRM Distinguished Service Award in 2020. She currently serves as Faculty for ASHRM’s CPHRM Preparation Course and served 10 years as faculty for ASHRM’s Healthcare Risk Management Certificate Course and the Enterprise Risk Management Certificate Course. Ann previously served as adjunct faculty for the School of Nursing at The George Washington University.

Karen Garvey serves as the Vice President for Safety & Clinical Risk Management for Parkland Health in Dallas, Texas. Reporting to the Chief Quality & Safety Officer, her current responsibilities include health system oversight of Regulatory & Accreditation, Patient Safety and Clinical Risk Management, Quality & Safety Education and has been heavily involved in the Parkland journey to becoming a High Reliability Organization. Additionally, she is the Executive Sponsor for the SPARKs (Supporting Parkland Staff) Peer Support Program, the Chairperson for Workforce Safety Initiatives in collaboration with other department leaders to implement proactive and reactive strategies to decrease violence against our employees and physicians. She serves on local, state, and national committees collaborating to collectively address this significant issue. She is often requested to speaks in forums about various levels of work to address the issue.

Karen is also active in the American Society for Healthcare Risk Managers (ASHRM) where she is currently serving a second term as a member of the ASHRM Board of Managers. She is a certified professional in healthcare risk management (CPHRM) and certified patient safety professional (CPPS) and has attained the Distinguished Fellow designation (DFASHRM) in healthcare risk management. In her love of mentoring healthcare professionals in these specialties, she has been active as national teaching faculty for the ASHRM and Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) for each organization's national certification courses. She is actively involved in the IHI Workforce Safety, Well Being and Equity Workgroup where she is an advisory lead, is an active participant in the AHA Hospital Against Violence Workgroup, works with the Texas Workplace Violence Against Nurses Taskforce and Dallas Fort Worth Hospital Council Workplace Violence Committee. Karen has attained two fellowships in Patient Safety through the HRET Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship and the Harvard Consortium Senior Patient Safety Executive Leadership Course.

Karen received the DFW Great 100 Award for Nurses in 2017, the Healthcare Risk Management Leadership Award from ASHRM in October 2019, the Presidential Citation Award for ASHRM in October 2021 and the inaugural Daisy Award for Nursing Ethics in May 2023.

Dr. Josh Hyatt, a seasoned healthcare risk management and bioethics expert with over 30 years of experience, holds a pivotal role as a Director of Risk Education and Strategy at Med-IQ and is an adjunct professor at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, contributing to various graduate programs. Dr. Hyatt's academic background includes Harvard Medical School, where he received a Master's in Bioethics, and Nova Southeastern University, where he received a Doctor of Health Science and a master’s in health law. He holds several professional certifications, including DFASHRM, CPHRM, CPPS, and HCE-C. Dr. Hyatt is an international speaker and author known for his work in peer-reviewed journals, white papers, and books. He also serves as the Deputy Editor for the ASHRM Journal and is a member of the ASHRM Advisory Board of Directors.