Patti Spaar

Ms. Spaar is a Senior Clinical Safety and Research Specialist at the MedStar National Center of Human Factors in Healthcare. She holds a Master of Science in Nursing from Stevenson University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She is Certified in Emergency Nursing. Her unique background in clinical nursing and Quality and Safety Coordination allows her to assist in utilization reviews and apply her expertise to the domain of patient safety. As a systems safety analyst she responds to requests from senior leaders and external clients to evaluate processes and safety risks in order to provide recommendations for mitigation of a wide range of patient and provider concerns. She currently supports projects with usability aspects such as best practices in safe medication administration with pharmacists, providers, and patients, and product optimization. In addition, Ms. Spaar provides clinical nursing expertise to support Dr. Ratwani’s Pennsylvania State Authority project which takes a deep dive into patient safety events and how best to mitigate errors from a human factors lens. In addition, she is part of a multi-disciplinary team working on determining how to best serve patients in the digital healthcare space. Through her prior clinical experience at MedStar Union Memorial Hospital Emergency Department, as well as her time as Quality Coordinator, she has hands-on experience in engaging with clinicians and patients alike. As a member of the leadership team, she assisted in the review and mitigation of patient safety events and worked to streamline the processes that promote safe patient care.