Overview
Susan Runyan started her own consulting firm in 2016. She primarily assists Critical Access Hospitals with quality improvement activities and programs along with quality data reporting. Runyan’s background includes more than 14 years in hospital risk and quality management with 30 years overall in a variety of healthcare roles. She worked for the Kansas Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO) for three years and then contracted with them to assist when needed with their CMS scope of work and beyond. She worked for the Kansas Hospital Improvement Innovation Network (HIIN) for one year. She has been a leader in MBQIP for Kansas Critical Access Hospitals (CAH) since 2013. Runyan contracts with other state Flex programs to perform workshops, provide education, or complete intensive in-person quality program analysis of specific hospitals. She also contracts independently with CAHs to serve as a trainer and resource when new quality directors, abstractors, or risk managers are hired.
Runyan has expertise in evaluating facility quality programs, leading patient and family engagement projects for both hospitals and clinics, teaching Lean and Plan-Do-Study-Act methodologies, and other performance/quality improvement training. Her clinical background is as a paramedic both in the field and in a rural hospital emergency department.
Runyan serves on the MHA Advisory Board for Wichita State University. She has served as a board member for the Kansas Association of Health Care Executives and is a former president of the Kansas Association of Risk and Quality Management. She holds a Master of Health Care Leadership from Friends University and a Bachelor of Science degree in health care administration from Southwestern College. Runyan also holds a Six Sigma Green Belt certificate in health care from Villanova University, Villanova, PA.