Senior Consultants:
Nancy Abrusley, RN
Nurse Consultant
Nancy Karam Abrusley, RN, is a healthcare consultant with 30+ years of extensive experience assisting organizations throughout the United States and Germany, including 13 years as a Consultant at Joint Commission Resources.
She has worked with over 450 hospitals, home care agencies, hospice, and ambulatory services conducting mock surveys, patient and system “tracers” in addition to follow–up services based upon findings.
Ernest Allen, ARM, CSP, CPHRM, CHFM
Life Safety Code Consultant
Ernie is a Certified Safety Professional and has his Associate in Risk Management from the Insurance Institute of America. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Safety from Central State University of Missouri. He is also a Certified Professional in Healthcare Risk Management and a Certified Healthcare Facility Manager.
Harold Blits, CHSP
Life Safety Code Consultant
Mr. Blits has been involved in healthcare for more than thirty years, in both the clinical and administrative activities associated with the delivery of healthcare. He has consulted for more than twentyfive years assisting more than 150 organizations with accreditation needs.
James Cernilia, MD
Physician Consultant
Dr. Cernilia surveyed nationally for The Joint Commission for six years previous to his affiliation with Patton Healthcare Consulting in 2012. In his role at The Joint Commission, Dr. Cernilia was certified under the hospital accreditation program. He functioned as team leader for on-site triennial surveys, performed innumerable on-site periodic performance reviews (PPRs) for hospitals, and was part of the corporate team leader cadre at The Joint Commission.
Fred Fehlinger, RN, PHRN, EMTP
Nurse Consultant
Fred Fehlinger is an RN consultant for survey preparedness, on-site support and remediation for hospital, ambulatory healthcare, critical access hospital, long term care and addiction/substance use programs under The Joint Commission, CMS, DNV and specific State programs. Mr. Fehlinger also has years of expertise in quality, patient safety, infection control, case management, environment of care, emergency preparedness, medical staff, provision of care, patients’ rights, organizational leadership and process improvement…
Mike Funk, CHSP, MHSA
Life Safety Code Surveyor
Mr. Funk has a healthcare career that spans more than 40 years with 18 years working as a Joint Commission Life Safety surveyor. He was hired as one of the original 50 Life Safety Surveyors when the Joint Commission branched out into dedicated building engineers to survey hospitals in 2004.
Kristine Corradetti Smith, RN, MSN, CPPS
Nurse Surveyor
Kristine Corradetti Smith RN, MSN, CPPS is a Registered Nurse and auditor with over 20 years of experience in the healthcare industry. She has a wide range of experience which includes a clinical background in surgical critical care, procedural sedation and peri-operative care and administrative experience as Senior Director of Quality/Regulatory for Steward Health System, Director of Patient Safety and Patient Safety Officer at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach.
Elise Gropper, PhD, RN, CPHQ, NEA-BC
Nurse Consultant
Elise Gropper specializes in the areas of Joint Commission accreditation, CMS regulatory compliance, ANCC Magnet Recognition Program®, CARF accreditation, staff development, performance improvement, and patient care redesign. Elise Gropper has served as a consultant to hospitals, behavioral health organizations, home health agencies, long-term care facilities, ambulatory care centers, surgi-centers and physician offices since 1995.
Mark Halal, LCSW
Clinical Consultant
Mark Halal, LCSW has provided behavioral healthcare consulting support nationwide to psychiatric hospitals, addictions and behavioral health organizations seeking to achieve and maintain Joint Commission accreditation and CMS compliance. As a consultant, Mr. Halal conducts training, gap analysis, and mock surveys for his clients and provides them with hands-on direction and technical assistance pertaining to Joint Commission survey processes, compliance, and standards on quality and safety.
Missi Halvorsen, RN, MSN
Nurse Consultant
Ms. Halvorsen joins Patton Healthcare Consulting with more than 35 years of extensive healthcare industry experience serving in leadership and consultative roles. Missi began her RN career as Director of Nursing in both the Home Health Care and Pharmacy industries. After a successful decade of holding that position, she took on the role of Director of Corporate Compliance and Privacy at Baptist Health in Jacksonville, Florida for 20 years.
Nancy Kendrick, RN, MS
Nurse Consultant
Nancy has as extensive background and career in nursing through progressive education from an Associate’s Degree in Nursing, Bachelor of Nursing Science to a Masters Degree in Health Care Administration. Her work history includes hospitals, community health centers, and occupational health in the manufacturing industry, home care and accreditation organizations.
Gloria Legere, RN, MS, JD, CPHQ
Nurse Consultant
Gloria Legere is a hospital accreditation and patient safety consultant. Gloria has been a member of the Patton Healthcare Consulting team since 2012. Her focus is assisting clients to develop practical, long term strategies for continuous readiness with Joint Commission, CMS and AAAHC compliance. Previously, she was a consultant with the Greeley Company where she also provided accreditation and patient safety expertise.
Kenneth W McGraw, CHSP
Life Safety Code Surveyor
Ken McGraw, CHSP, comes to Patton Healthcare Consulting with an extensive 35+ year career in healthcare including ten years as a Life Safety Code surveyor and with five years as a Life Safety Code Specialist at The Joint Commission.
Andy Morley, MD, FAAFP
Physician Consultant
Before joining Patton Healthcare Consulting, Inc., Dr. Morley was a Joint Commission Physician Surveyor for 9 years, leaving TJC in 2019. Dr. Morley has expertise in surveying hospitals, critical access, DoD, VA, and Primary Care medical facilities. During his tenure at TJC, he participated in the development of and teaching in the new training program for new surveyors as well as serving on the editorial board for the Leading Practice Library. Dr, Morley served as Team leader for many large healthcare systems including Mayo Clinic and HCA.
Chris Ricchiuto, CHFM, CFPS
Life Safety Code Consultant
Chris Ricchiuto, CHFM, CFPS was a Joint Commission Life Safety Code Specialist for over 10 years and is cross trained in the Hospital Accreditation Program (HAP), Critical Access Hospital Program (CAH) and Behavioral Health Care Programs (BHC). Additionally, he has received specialized training from the Office of Quality and Patient Safety and was a member of the Special Survey Unit that performed “for cause” surveys in response to patient safety events.
DeAnn Richards, RN
Nurse Consultant
DeAnn Richards has worked in Infection Prevention and Occupational Health for over 27 years. She has an Associate Degree in both Occupational Therapy and Nursing, followed by her bachelor’s in nursing. Her previous experience in patient safety and quality included being a regional lead at Lake Superior Quality Innovation Network to support the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) priorities for health care quality improvement. Through a subcontracted with the Wisconsin Hospital Association, she also supported the Hospital Improvement Innovation Networks (HIIN).
Andre Perlo, RRT, MBA
Clinical Consultant
Andre Perlo is a Registered Respiratory Therapist, licensed to practice in the state of Florida. He entered the field of Respiratory Care in 1973 following his graduation from the University of Massachusetts at Boston. He became registered and certified by the NBRC in 1974. His Respiratory Care experience started as a staff therapist in a community hospital and ended as director of Respiratory Care for a 600-bed regional institution. In 1981, following a successful career within the hospital setting, he entered the home care arena, never to look back.
Susan Seeley, RN, MSN, NEA-BC
Nurse Consultant
Susan Seeley has over 40 years of experience in the healthcare industry both as a nurse leader and as a clinical consultant with a focus on patient care services and regulatory compliance.
Paul Vilar, MSN, RN
Nurse Consultant
Paul Vilar joined the Aurora Health Care System in 2007 as a Registered Nurse. He holds a Master’s Degree in Nursing, Clinical Nurse Specialist tract, from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. Over the last 3 years, he has served as the Stroke Program Manager at Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center (ASLMC), a 600+ bed Comprehensive Stroke Certified medical center in Milwaukee Wisconsin.
Debra Zak, PhD, RN, LAc
Nurse Consultant
Dr. Zak has more than 35 years of extensive experience in the health care industry with a successful record of increasing responsibility in various healthcare settings. Her experience spans from clinical and consultant experience in hospitals and home care organizations to progressive leadership experience at The Joint Commission related to accreditation products, programs, standards and survey processes.
Senior Leadership:
Les Cowel, MBA
Business Director
Les Cowel joined Patton Healthcare Consulting, Inc. in 2015 as the organization’s Business Director and in 2019 became the Chief Financial Officer. In his current position at Patton, Les is responsible for every financial aspect of the business. This is including, but not limited to, employee and contractor payroll, yearly and quarterly taxes, business banking, overseeing fiscal activity, assuring legal and regulatory financial compliance, accounts receivable, and accounts payable, and all other general bookkeeping.
Lindsey Cowel
Operations Manager
Lindsey Cowel began working at Patton Healthcare Consulting in 2015 as a Project Manager and in 2021, became the Operations Manager. Her main role consists of coordinating survey agendas, managing and scheduling client surveys, and following-up all survey activities with a final report.
Lauren Donaldson
Administrative Director
Lauren Donaldson joined Patton Healthcare Consulting in 2016 as the Marketing and Operations Manager and in 2019 she took on the role of Administrative Director. In her position at Patton, Lauren is responsible for, but not limited to, drafting onsite and offsite agendas, preparing final report files, website design, creating and revising files in a database of tools, composing Patton Blog posts, and designing and publishing the Patton Post Newsletter.