Patricia McGaffigan

Patricia A. McGaffigan, RN, MS, is Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President of Programs at the National Patient Safety Foundation. Patricia’s other roles with NPSF have included Interim President, and Vice President of Program Strategy and Management. Additional positions she has held over her career include staff nurse in pediatric critical care, faculty member in a baccalaureate nursing program, and education and marketing positions for several start-up and established medical device companies focused on improving patient safety. Throughout her varied career path, Patricia has consistently prioritized patient safety as a critical strategic imperative, and has focused on building bridges for teamwork and collaboration on key patient safety initiatives.

Patricia is a graduate of the NPSF-American Hospital Association Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship program and is a member of the American Society for Professionals in Patient Safety. She participates in and serves on a wide range of health care and patient safety related committees, including the AAMI Foundation Healthcare Technology Safety Institute and the National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention. She also served on the Society of Critical Care Medicine’s Coalition for Critical Care, and several task forces related to patient safety, including the High Reliability, Simulation, and Closed Loop task forces. Patricia was an invited panelist and speaker for a United States Congressional Briefing on Patient Safety in Oncology. In addition, she has served as a judge for several nationally recognized award programs focused on patient safety and quality and has spoken at a wide range of conferences.

She was named a Lifetime Member of the American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN), having served on AACN’s Certification Corporation Board of Directors (including Chairperson), AACN’s Nominating Committee, and AACN’s President Search Committee. She has collaborated with AACN on a number of programs focused on patient safety, including organizing and moderating AACN’s first Patient Safety Summit, and implementing education programs for safe use of technology at hundreds of schools of nursing.

Patricia’s patient safety passions include the importance of assuring that health care workers find joy and meaning in their work, workforce safety, and transparency, as well as further development of patient safety cultures, certification, and advancements.

She received her BS with a major in Nursing from Boston College, and her MS with a major in Nursing from Boston University.