Francine Westergaard, RN, MSN, MBA
Senior Consultant, Joint Commission International
Francine Westergaard has more than 25 years of nursing experience as a practitioner, educator, administrator and researcher. Ms. Westergaard’s consulting expertise includes operational assessment; standards and survey preparedness; patient safety assessment; medication management; infection prevention and control; environment of care; executive leadership and governing bodies; senior executive dialogue; performance improvement; and incorporating tracer methodology as management tools.
Ms. Westergaard has extensive experience lecturing on standards and survey preparedness, patient safety, and quality improvement. She provides suggestions and applications for improvement to assist organizations as they facilitate change dynamics.
Ms. Westergaard has held progressive leadership positions in hospital and ambulatory care settings. This experience includes responsibilities as a health care administrator for inpatient hospital operations; hospital-based and off-site ambulatory care services; budgeting; staffing; quality measurement and improvement; new project/service development; transport medicine and emergency services; disaster planning; facility management; facility planning and construction during the construction of a new hospital and an outpatient oncology center. She worked for a large health care system in the Chicago area for more than 23 years prior to joining the Joint Commission Resources team in 2007.
Her international experience has included consultation in major hospitals, health systems and ministries of health in the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and the Middle East.
Ms. Westergaard received her diploma in nursing from Evangelical School of Nursing, Oak Lawn, Illinois. She received her bachelor’s of science and master’s of science in nursing from Lewis University, Romeoville, Illinois. She completed her MBA at Walden University in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Her professional affiliations include American Academy of Pediatrics; American Association of Critical Care Nurses; American Heart Association; American Organization of Nurse Executives, where she was the recipient of the 2004 Aspiring Nurse Leader Award; Sigma Theta Tau; and the Society of Critical Care Medicine. Ms. Westergaard is also a Joint Commission-certified Yellow Belt.