Ilene Corina

Ilene Corina Speaker Biography

Ilene Corina is the President and founder of Pulse Center for Patient Safety Education & Advocacy.  She was selected as Modern Healthcare’s 100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare of 2009 and one of the 50 Experts Leading the Field in Patient Safety, Becker’s Hospital Review, 2013. She received a full scholarship to the American Hospital Association Patient Safety Leadership Training where she developed a Patient Safety Council to study the needs of vulnerable populations as they use the healthcare system. She used the findings to develop tools for improvements in quality healthcare.

A longtime board member of the National Patient Safety Foundation until 2017, Ilene co-chaired the Patient and Family Advisory Council from 2002-2006. In 2002, she spearheaded the first National Patient Safety Awareness Week that shed light on the importance of partnerships between patients and healthcare professionals to reduce medical harm.

Ilene is a board member of the Joint Commission since 2005. She has served on the Commission’s Health Literacy Public Policy Roundtable and the workgroup that developed Advancing Effective Communication, Cultural Competence, and Patient- and Family-Centered Care for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Community.

A trained mediator and trained in compassionate communication, Ilene uses this to work with patients and their families after a medical injury or death has occurred and has developed curriculum on disclosure of medical errors which has been used in medical training. Ilene has produced and directed numerous videos and audios for patient safety education. Her work has been published in the American Journal of Nursing and Perioperative Nursing Clinics. She has authored a book “Teaching Patient Safety, An Educators’ Guide” and co-authored “Family Centered Patient Advocacy, A Training Manual.”

Ilene led a team in developing the first training curriculum focused on Family Centered Patient Advocacy, which helps families become part of the healthcare team. She has been teaching this course since 2006 Ilene has appeared as a patient-safety expert on many news programs and has been quoted in articles in newspapers and magazines. Ilene has won awards for her work including the Institute for Safe Medication Practices Cheers Award and the MITSS HOPE Award.

She is a Master Trainer in SHARE Approach/ Decision Making, has trained in Cultural Competency and Health Literacy and she visits middle schools, high schools, and community groups to help the public understand their role in patient safety. Ilene Corina has over 1,000 hours at the bedside of patients as their advocate and assists families navigate the healthcare system. She writes a blog about her experiences called Rants of a Patient Safety Advocate. Personal experience propelled her work in patient safety and advocacy. She is a popular lecturer about the patient and families role in patient safety.