Professional Roles
American Society of Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM) – Board Member
Michigan Society of Healthcare Risk Management (MSHRM) –Past President
United States Pharmacopoeia Council of Experts – Past Member

Biography
Michelle Hoppes is a nationally recognized expert and leader in patient safety, risk management and performance improvement. Michelle has over 27 years of experience in the health care industry, with the past 17 in the area of risk management.. Michelle specializes in providing customized services for healthcare providers and organizations, with a focus on clinical risk management, just culture training, coaching, education, disclosure of error, failure mode effects analysis, root cause analysis, and the evaluation and design of risk management and patient safety programs.

As CEO of Patient Safety and Risk Solutions, Michelle has developed the company mission which is to advance risk reduction initiatives in health care and to create new solutions in patient safety. Michelle is leading the company direction as they support healthcare organizations, medical providers, insurance companies, not-for-profit patient safety foundations, associations and technology companies. The primary focus of the company is clinical risk management, team training, simulation models, professional development and research.

In her prior employment, Michelle demonstrated exceptional leadership, creativity and innovation. Most recently, she served as the President of a risk management and patient safety consulting company, which was a division of a professional liability insurance company. In this position she performed the lead role in the vision and development of the consulting company and the risk management programs. She also performed the role of Vice President of the Risk Management department for the professional liability insurance company. Prior to that, Michelle performed the role of Director of Risk Management and Compliance for an integrated healthcare system. Her responsibilities as Director, included ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements, aiding in the integration of risk management and quality improvement, developing proactive approaches for patient safety, claims management, and procuring risk transfer vehicles.

Michelle is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM) and has served as President of ASHRM’s Michigan Chapter. She has also been a member of the Safe Medication Use Committee of USP. Michelle has completed the AHA/ASHRM Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship, where she led a research project and toolkit development on “Just Culture”—a shared accountability model. She is also a frequent speaker on topics related to risk management, quality improvement, leadership and patient safety. She has authored numerous articles and co-authored a book on Patient Safety—Statistical Correlation and Staffing Effectiveness.

Michelle has a Master of Healthcare Management degree with an emphasis in Healthcare Risk Management from Chicago Medical School's Finch University. She has been recipient of several distinguished awards, including the designation of Distinguished Fellow of the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (DFASHRM), and is certified in both risk and quality management.

Graham Billingham, MD, FACEP
Chief Medical Officer

Graham Billingham has over 20 years of experience as a practicing emergency medicine physician. He speaks nationally on emergency medicine and has lectured in more than 200 CME courses on risk management, operations, documentation, patient safety, information technology, coding and billing, and malpractice prevention. He is the formation Chairman of the Emergency Medicine Patient Safety Foundation. Graham currently sits on the physician advisory board of the Emergency Department Practice Management Association (EDPMA) and several technology companies. He is a Vice President and Member of the Board of Governors of the Emergency Physicians Insurance Company, Executive Vice President and CMO for NCG Enterprises, LLC and has served on the American College of Emergency Physicians Coding and Nomenclature Committee. He founded and served as medical director for The Center for Emergency Medical Education and was a cofounder of the National Emergency Medicine Board Review Course.

Dianne Vass
Chief Operating Officer

Dianne Vass has over 15 years in the health care and insurance industry managing numerous successful ventures that include the formalization of corporate marketing strategies and the project development for a healthcare organization pursuing a computerized medical diagnostic and treatment ­advice system. With a strong commitment to the idea of a specialty driven patient safety foundation, Dianne has exercised significant influence in the ­formation of both the Emergency Medicine Patient Safety Founda­tion (EMSPSF) and the TriState Patient Safety Foundation (TPSF). She has played an integral part in connecting people and resources to EMPSF and TPSF with the end goal of public benefit. Dianne also acts as the primary ambassador of the Foundations’ visions and programs at industry gatherings and tradeshows across the United States.