About Us

Leadership & Key Staff

Leadership

Marcia Petrillo, MA
Chief Executive Officer

Marcia Petrillo is the chief executive officer of Qualidigm, the national consulting and research firm in Rocky Hill, Conn., whose mission is to continuously advance improvement in the quality, safety and cost-effectiveness of health care.

Petrillo has 30 years of experience creating innovative and scientifically-based solutions that meet the changing needs of patients and the health care system. Prior to joining Qualidigm in 1984, she was executive director of the Hartford County Professional Standards Review Organization and the Hartford County Health Care Plan, an all-payor utilization review program in Conn.

A recognized visionary in the design and implementation of quality improvement initiatives, Petrillo was also project director of a national effort to develop quality measures to improve care provided to patients with acute myocardial infarction, pneumonia and pressure ulcers. She led the statewide public reporting project that established a best practice approach to presenting quality information for nursing home, hospital and home health settings in Rhode Island.

Continually active in community service, Petrillo was named “health care pioneer” and “civic leader” at the 2008 Annual Dorian M. Copeland Scholarship Awards Banquet in Hartford, hosted by the Sons of Thunder Coalition. This non-profit community service entity helps Greater Hartford’s youth build hopeful futures through cooperative work with area churches and human-service organizations.

Petrillo was recently named chair of the Board of Advisors for the Connecticut Quality Council (CQC) comprised of statewide business, manufacturing and service industry members dedicated to raising the quality bar to enhance organizational performance. She is also an Economic Development Committee member for the MetroHartford Alliance and an executive committee member for the American Heart Association’s local “Go Red” luncheon campaign. Additionally, she serves on the UConn School of Business Center for Healthcare and Insurance Studies advisory committee and the Board of eHealth Connecticut, the state’s health information exchange.

Petrillo was a keynote at the 2007 Women Who Dare Series launch. The series was co-hosted by the Hartford Club, Connecticut Women’s Council, UConn Foundation, Latina Roundtable and the Junior League of Hartford. In 2006, she received the Excellence in Leadership Award from Quality Partners of Rhode Island, which established in her honor The Marcia K. Petrillo MPH Assistant Sponsorship with Brown University. She is the 2002 recipient of the national James Q. Cannon Distinguished Executive Leader Award in Health Care Quality Improvement.

She and her Qualidigm colleagues have published numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and have presented widely. Petrillo helped found the Kerr L. White Institute of Health Services Research in which five QIOs collaborated on state-based quality improvement projects.

Petrillo holds a master’s degree from Boston College and a bachelor’s from Regis College. She resides with her husband Charles in Bloomfield, Conn.

 
Thomas P. Meehan, MD, MPH, FACP
Chief Medical Officer

Thomas Meehan is the chief medical officer of Qualidigm, the national consulting and research firm in Rocky Hill, Conn., whose mission is to continuously advance improvement in the quality, safety and cost-effectiveness of health care. Dr. Meehan’s main area of professional interest is in developing effective methods to measure and improve the quality of health care.

Recruited by Qualidigm in 1992, Dr. Meehan is the first physician hired by any of the state-based Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs) to lead their systematic efforts to measure and improve quality of care in the Medicare program. He has subsequently played a lead role in numerous local and national Medicare quality improvement projects in hospital and outpatient settings. For example, he and a Qualidigm team worked with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and panels of national experts to develop quality measures for Medicare patients hospitalized with pneumonia or with acute myocardial infarction. These measures have subsequently been utilized to measure quality of care for all patients hospitalized with these conditions. In Connecticut, Dr. Meehan has led the Qualidigm team’s support of practicing physicians’ adoption of electronic medical records.

Currently, he and Qualidigm colleagues are working with eHealth Connecticut, the Connecticut State Medical Society (CSMS), the CSMS – Independent Practice Association, and five health plans to combine and analyze outpatient physician claims data to identify opportunities for improvement for practicing physicians. Dr. Meehan is also currently serving as the clinical lead for the Connecticut Health Foundation-funded “EQual” (Equity and Quality) Health Care project. The two-year grant for this project was awarded to Qualdigm to provide statewide assistance to physicians in private practice who serve racial and ethnic minority patients in improving patient-provider communication and enhancing quality improvement knowledge and systems.

Since 1999, Dr. Meehan has served as a clinician-teacher in the Yale Hypertension Practice. He is also an accomplished researcher and public speaker. He has published widely in peer-reviewed journals and he has presented the work that he and his colleagues have conducted in numerous national and local scientific meetings. He has served on a variety of national and local technical expert panels and advisory boards, including eHealth Connecticut, the National Quality Forum and the American Board of Internal Medicine.

Dr. Meehan received his Bachelor of Science, Medical, and Master of Public Health Degrees from the University of Connecticut. He also completed an internal medicine internship and residency at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA, a general internal medicine fellowship at the University of Connecticut Health Center, and a hypertension fellowship at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Dr. Meehan is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and an Associate Clinical Professor at Yale Medical School.

In addition to Dr. Meehan’s professional work, he has also coached boys’ and girls’ youth basketball teams in Southington, CT where he lives with his family.

 
Kathleen Warren, BSN, MS
Chief Corporate Services Officer

Kathleen Warren is chief corporate services officer of Qualidigm, the national consulting and research firm whose mission is to continuously advance improvement in the quality, safety and cost-effectiveness of health care.

Trained and educated as a registered nurse, Warren has spent nearly her entire professional career in the Health Care Industry working with federal and private organizations in consulting, technical and managerial capacities.

Since its 1984 inception, she has served Qualidigm in various managerial roles of increasing scope and responsibility. Currently as chief corporate services officer, she has multi-functional accountabilities, including corporate and office services, communications systems, facilities management, purchasing and facilitation of corporate strategic planning and progress. In her role as compliance officer, Warren directs Qualidigm’s internal audit activities related to its contracts and ISO 9001-2000 certification requirements. Warren is also responsible for the Review Services Department, which conducts both Medicare and Medicaid review.

In the 32 years she has worked at Qualidigm, Warren has reported to CEO Marcia K. Petrillo, a recognized visionary in the design and implementation of quality improvement initiatives. Together, they have actively fostered the company’s growth from nine to more than 50 employees; professionals who are widely published in peer-reviewed journals and who serve on a variety of national and local expert panels and advisory boards.

Warren is currently a member of Qualidigm’s Executive Council for which she provides guidance and knowledge, as she does for the organization as a whole. Qualidigm’s vision is to be the pre-eminent and unbiased resource for those seeking to achieve the best value in health care.

Since 2004, Warren has been a member of the American Society for Quality, the world’s leading membership organization devoted to quality and quality improvement.

Maintaining her registered nursing license since 1973, she holds a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Nursing from Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey; and a Masters of Science Degree in Health Care Management from the Hartford Graduate Center, Hartford, Conn.

Warren resides with her husband in Rocky Hill, Conn., where Qualidigm is based.

Key Staff

Anne Elwell, RN, BS, MPH, CPHQ, CHIT
Director of Quality Improvement Consulting Services

Anne Ellwell is the Director of Quality Improvement Consulting Services at Qualidigm, the Connecticut-based Quality Improvement Organization and designated Patient Safety Organization. She has over 20 years of experience in the quality improvement field and has been with Qualidigm since 1988. In 1999 she was appointed the director of quality improvement consulting services. Ms. Elwell has completed the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services-sponsored Doctor's Office Quality - Information Technology (DOQ-IT) training series and the Dartmouth College Clinical Microsystems Office Redesign Program. Prior to joining Qualidigm, Ms. Elwell was a nurse and office manager in a primary care physician's practice. She is a certified professional of health care quality (CPHQ) and completed her Master of Public Health degree at the University of Connecticut.

Ann Spenard, MSN, RN, C
Director of Business Development

Ann Spenard is the Director of Business Development of Qualidigm, the Connecticut-based Quality Improvement Organization and designated Patient Safety Organization. She has 23-years of experience as a Long Term Care and Geriatrics Specialist. Ms. Spenard has served as Clinical Coordinator to the National Nursing Home Quality Initiative and senior clinician and manager of the data verification project for the MDS, otherwise known as, DAVE2, for Qualidigm. Ann served as a Surveyor for The Joint - Commission on Accreditation of Health Organizations in Illinois for the past seven years. Ann surveyed under the Hospital and Long Term Care manuals. In her nursing career Ann spent many years in the Emergency Department, then as a compliance coordinator in Long Term Care and as a Director of Nursing. Prior to joining Qualidigm, Ann was founder and president of Healthcare Consultation & Education Resources, Inc., where she provided consultation and education on issues of Long Term Care and Geriatrics. Ann used her expertise to serve a spectrum of organizations including as an Expert Witness for several law firms, where she reviewed documents and depositions for compliance with Long Term Care Standards, and testified to such as required.

Shih-Yieh Ho, MPH, PhD
Director of Analysis

Shih-Yieh Ho is the Manager of Analysis and a Senior Analyst at Qualidigm, the Connecticut-based Quality Improvement Organization and designated Patient Safety Organization. She joined Qualidigm in 2001 and provides analytical expertise in applied health care research and epidemiology to the Medicare inpatient and outpatient project teams and other company projects. She is experienced in analyzing ORYX and CMS related measures and was the lead in designing the series of quality improvement reports Qualidigm prepares and distributes to Connecticut hospitals. Prior to joining Qualidigm, Dr. Ho was a director in the neurosurgical research department at the University of Connecticut Health Center and Hartford Hospital. In that role, she provided leadership to the residency research program. At Hartford Hospital she also served as a project manager in the stroke outcomes unit. Dr. Ho received her Master of Public Health from the University of Connecticut and her doctorate from the University of Georgia.