Kathryn Paez
Kathryn Paez, R.N., Ph.D., is a managing researcher at AIR with 25 years of experience in quality improvement, program development and evaluation, and quantitative and qualitative analysis. Much of her work has focused on quality improvement, chronic conditions, and disparities in health care delivery. Dr. Paez spearheaded the design and evaluation of interventions, such as the development of disease registries and physician reporting, to improve the care of six common chronic conditions across the continuum of care at Lovelace Health Systems, an integrated delivery system. She served as quality director of a new managed care plan, St. Joseph Medicare+Choice, establishing the process for HEDIS reporting and meeting Medicare’s quality improvement requirements.
Dr. Paez has extensive experience with applying quality indicators, including the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Patient Safety Indicators and Quality Indicators, to evaluate quality of care. She has used the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) Nationwide Inpatient Sample to evaluate the impact of health information technology on patient safety and the HCUP State Inpatient Databases to assess the association of hospital nurse leader engagement in quality to outcomes of care.