Lillee Smith Gelinas RN, BSN, MSN, FAAN
VHA Inc.
220 E. Las Colinas Blvd.
Irving, TX 75039
972-830-0239 lgelinas@vha.com
Biographical Information
Lillee Gelinas is currently Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer for VHA Inc. She has 31 years of experience in healthcare including five years in the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps. Formerly a VHA shareholder hospital CNO, Lillee has served at VHA since 1986, helping create programs and services to benefit VHA's nurses, clinicians and impact quality patient care. She serves on numerous national committees including the Joint Commission Nursing Advisory Council. In 2003, she co-chaired the National Quality Forum Nursing Project, which resulted in 15 consensus performance measures being established for nursing sensitive care.
She is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing (AAN) and serves on AAN's Workforce
Commission. As a member of the Board of Directors for Exempla Healthcare, Denver, Colorado since 2002, she is chair of the Governance Committee.
Lillee serves on VHA's Clinical Improvement Services leadership team, which has set clinical excellence aligned with nationally recognized initiatives and performance measurement as a top priority. She facilitates VHA's work with Chief Nursing Officers and nursing leaders both nationally and with VHA's 16 local offices.
In the Fall of 2005, she was appointed to the American Health Information Community (or AHIC) as the "consensus nominee" for the nursing profession, nominated by ANA. AHIC is a commission authorized by the White House to further President Bush's goal to promote Information Technology in healthcare within 10 years to lower costs, enhance quality and provide better information to physicians and patients. It is chaired by the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary
Michael Leavitt. Lillee co-chairs the AHIC Electronic Health Record workgroup along with
Jonathan Perlin MD, Chief Medical Officer at HCA Inc. and former Undersecretary for Health for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
She attended Louisiana State University, earned her bachelor’s degree in nursing from the
University of Louisiana at Lafayette and a master’s degree in nursing, with honors, from the
University of Pennsylvania where she also studied at the Wharton School of Business.
A Louisiana native, she currently resides in Southlake, Texas with her husband Marc, also a healthcare executive. Their son, Alexander “AJ” Gelinas, is a sophomore studying Computer
Science Engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas.
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Lillee Smith Gelinas RN, BSN, MSN, FAAN
Affiliations with National Quality Organizations and Board/Committee Appointments
AHIC (American Health Information Community)

Gelinas was nominated by the American Nurses Association in August 2005 as the
“consensus nominee” to represent the U.S. nursing profession and was vetted by the
White House for appointment in September 2005.

AHIC is responsible for the national strategy development and implementation tactics for a fully automated interoperable health information system in the United States which will support national clinical quality, patient safety and cost reductions goals.
The presidential directive for the commission was outlined in President George Bush’s
Executive Order dated April 27, 2004 and can be accessed at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/04/20040427-4.html

AHIC is chaired by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary
Michael Leavitt.

Gelinas serves as co-chair of the AHIC electronic health record work group with
Jonathan Perlin MD, Former Under Secretary for Health – Dept. of Veterans Affairs and Current Chief Medical Officer, HCA Inc.

Gelinas is supported by the VHA Washington office staff in this endeavor.
AAN (American Academy of Nursing)

Inducted as a fellow in November 2005

Member of the workforce commission since 2003 o Work interfaces with the “Transformation of Care at the Bedside” project that addresses hospital flow, nursing efficiency and outcomes, and hospital cost improvement.
IHI (Institute for Healthcare Improvement)

Faculty for the IHI National Forum and IHI programs since 1993

Assists with the management of the VHA relationship with IHI as well as the node certification process (each VHA Regional Office is a node in the “Save 100,000 Lives” and “Prevent 5 million Lives from Harm” campaigns)

Served as co-chair of the 2006 IHI Mid Year meeting (2nd International Summit on
Redesigning Hospital Care)

Served as co-chair of the 19th “National Annual Forum on Quality Improvement in
Healthcare” – December 2007, IHI’s largest annual event.
Exempla Healthcare – Denver, Colorado

A not for profit, multi-hospital system, one of the largest and most respected health systems in the state of Colorado

Board of Directors: 2002 – current

Chair, Governance Committee: 2003 – present

CEO – Jeff Selberg
NPSF (National Patient Safety Foundation)

Faculty since 1998

Member of the annual National Congress planning committee
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IOM (Institute of Medicine)

Crossing the Quality Chasm Summit, January, 2004 o Committee member o Agenda Subcommittee Chair

Committee on Redesigning Health Insurance Benefits, Payment and Performance
Improvement Programs --Member of subcommittee on Performance Measures, 2004 -
2005
JC (The Joint Commission - formerly the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare
Organizations)

Nursing Shortage Public Policy Roundtable: convened to address the nursing shortage,
2001

Nursing Advisory Council member, 2002 – present

Hospital Standards Advisory Group member, 2004 – present

John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality Awards – Judge: 2003 and 2004

Hospital of the Future Public Policy roundtable: January 2006 – present

2006 Technical Advisory Panel: RWJF funded project to create an Implementation
Manual for the National Quality Forum Nursing Sensitive Care Performance
Measures.

2007 Technical Advisory Panel: RWJF funded project to test national implementation of the Nursing-Sensitive Care Performance Measure Set
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Nursing Leadership Roundtable: 2003 - present

NQF Nursing Sensitive Measures Research Committee: 2004 – present

VHA Inc. Rapid Response Team grant – responsible for executive oversight:
December 2005 – present

Designing the 21st Century Hospital project: 2004

Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative: 2005 – present

Roundtable on Innovative Care Delivery Models: 2007
NQF (National Quality Forum) - VHA is a full voting member of the NQF

Co-chair, Nursing Care Performance Measures Committee, 2003

Nursing Performance Measurement Tracking Planning Advisory Committee – 2006 – present
University of Pennsylvania

2006 School of Nursing Alumni of the Year

2007 School of Nursing Invitational Think Tank on the Future of Nursing

Advanced Practice Nurse (APN) Transitional Care Model for Elders o National Advisory Committee, 2004 - present
University of Texas at Arlington School of Nursing

Adjunct Clinical Instructor, 2002 – present
American Nurse Today magazine

Editorial Advisory Board, 2006 – present
Boca Raton Community Hospital, Boca Raton, Florida

National Advisory Committee: Building the Safest Hospital in America project
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Professional affiliations

American Academy of Nursing

American Nurses Association

American Organization of Nurse Executives

American College of Healthcare Executives

Sigma Theta Tau nursing honor society

Phi Kappa Phi academic honor society
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