| Heidi King, MS, FACHE
Ms. King serves as the Deputy Director of the Department of Defense's (DoD) Patient Safety Program (PSP) and as the Director of the PSP's Patient Safety Solutions Center in the Office of the Chief Medical Officer (OCMO) for Health Affairs of TRICARE Management Activity (TMA).
Ms. King oversees the integration of teamwork principles and human factors initiatives into practice through education, training, research, collaboration and outreach initiatives within the Military Health System. These initiatives are designed to enhance patient care and safety to meet the health care needs of 9.2 million DoD beneficiaries. Invited to numerous conferences, she shares relevant information regarding training and process consultation on culture change management, behavioral implementation, and sustainment of teamwork efforts.
Ms. King is a member of the DoD Patient Safety Planning and Coordination Committee. She is collaborating with AHRQ on behalf of the DoD Patient Safety Program on strategic initiatives including developing teamwork measures, medical team training and implementation strategies, and multiple publications. Ms. King has led the development of TeamSTEPPS (Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety), an evidence-based initiative to integrate teamwork principles into practice to assist organizations as they promote a culture of safety. In collaboration with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), this multimedia toolkit will be available to civilian healthcare systems and modeled as the gold-standard.
In 2005, Ms. King was awarded The Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Civilian Service for her innovative accomplishments at TMA. In 2009, Ms. King was awarded the National Patient Safety Foundation Chairman's Medal. She has co-authored several articles related to role of medical teamwork and education, training, and culture change.
Prior to working with the Department of Defense Patient Safety Program at TRICARE Management Activity (TMA), Ms. King was the Project Manager for the Education Division of the TMA Office of the Special Assistant for Optimization. Before joining TMA, Ms. King worked in a variety of medically related management positions at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, DC including Internal Consultant advising teams on redesign of business processes, cost savings, and change management, as well as, Program Manager for Clinical Support Services, managing seventeen departments.
Ms. King graduated summa cum laude with a Masters in Health Administration from the University of Pittsburgh and a BS in Education and Health from Edinboro University, after becoming a registered dental hygienist. She is Board Certified in Healthcare Management and a Diplomate of the American College of Healthcare Executives. She had held several faculty appointments in the metropolitan Washington, DC area and Ms. King served for two years as a dental health educator with the Peace Corps.
