Ronnie McKinnon, RN, JD, Program Director & Clinical Assistant Professor

	Ronnie McKinnon, RN, JD, CPHRM, CPSO, CPPS, The Program Director Clinical Assistant Professor Tel:631-444-6689 Email at ronnie.mckinnon@stonybrook.edu
The Program Director, Ronnie McKinnon, RN, JD, Clinical Assistant Professor is a Registered Nurse with a clinical background as a Neonatal ICU Nurse Clinician and Nurse Educator. She also holds a law degree and is a Certified Professional in Healthcare Risk Management (CPHRM), a Certified Patient Safety Officer (CPSO), a Certified Professional in Patient Safety (CPPS), a TeamSTEPPS Master Trainer and a Certified Just Culture Professional. Additionally, she completed the intense Human Factors Analysis Classification System ("HFACS") training which is an empirically derived system-safety model used to perform root cause analysis to identify, classify and analyze human error in complex high risk systems and is used for causal factor accident/error analysis by Aviation, Military, Nuclear Power and Chemical Power Plants and other High Reliability Organizations. Specializing in health law, healthcare risk management and patient safety she coupled her clinical background and law degree in representing health care providers in their vigorous defense of medical malpractice matters. In that role she defended Physicians, Nurse Practitioners, Physicians Assistants, Nurses, Dentists, Respiratory Therapists, Emergency Medical Technicians, Pharmacists and many other disciplines of health care professionals against allegations related to diagnostic error, medical errors, medical malpractice, scope of practice issues, medical staff privileges, and negligence. As an in-house Counsel at Stony Brook University Hospital for over 17 years, she advised on all aspects of clinical patient related health law and assisted Hospital Administration and health care providers in the prevention of and response to adverse events, assisted them in carrying out disclosure, and where appropriate apology, complying with and responding to state and Federal regulatory agencies, managed all medical malpractice litigation, assisted healthcare professionals in carrying out quality assurance, peer review activities under applicable state quality assurance and peer review privilege and confidentiality laws and assisted SBUH in becoming one of the first hospitals in the country to cloak certain quality assurance activities with Federal privilege protection under the Federal Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act, interpreted and assisted in compliance with mental health law, public health law and other laws, health regulations and accreditation requirements and activities in order to assist health care providers, Administrators and managers in achieving National Patient Safety Goals. As an adjunct Professor of Health Law for Loyola Law School in Chicago, she taught graduate students and post Law degree, LLM students Patient Safety, Health Care Risk Management and Quality courses as well as Graduate Level Thesis Projects. Some of her National and International Presentations include the following:
October 9-11, 2014	“The Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act: A Prescription for a Culture of Safety" — Abstract Accepted for Podium Presentation at the American Association of Nurse Attorneys 33rd Annual Conference, Las Vegas, Nevada.
October 10-12, 2013	“Teaming Up to Reduce Medical Errors” — Abstract accepted for Podium Presentation at the American Association of Nurse Attorneys 32nd Annual Conference, Savannah, Georgia.
June 12-13, 2013	“Teams Speaking Up for Safety” — Abstract accepted for Podium Presentation at the 2013 TeamSTEPPS® Annual Conference, Dallas, Texas.
May 16-18, 2013	“Improving Patient Safety with TeamSTEPPS® Tools” — Invited speaker Loyola Law School, Beazley Institute for Health Law and Policy, Chicago, Illinois.
August 19-20, 2011	“Human Factors in the Healthcare Safety Environment” — Invited speaker Loyola Law School, Beazley Institute for Health Law and Policy, Chicago, Illinois.
May 2011	“CUS Your Way to Patient Safety with Crew Resource Management” — Invited Speaker to present a 6 hour TeamSTEPPS Symposium, Cork University Maternity Hospital, Cork University, Cork County, Ireland.
October 2010	“CUS Your Way to Patient Safety with Crew Resource Management”— Abstract accepted for Podium Presentation at The Irish and American Paediatric Society Annual Meeting, Dublin, Ireland
October 2010	“Deep Dive for Patient Safety” — Abstract accepted for Podium Presentation at The Irish and American Paediatric Society Annual Meeting, Dublin, Ireland.
May 2010	“Kids 4 Patient Safety: A multi-generational hand hygiene campaign” — Poster Presentation - National Patient Safety Foundation Congress, Orlando, Florida.
May 2010	“Deep Dive for Patient Safety” — Poster Presentation - National Patient Safety Foundation Congress, Orlando, Florida.
April 2010	“Deep Dive for Patient Safety” — Abstract accepted for Podium Presentation at the University Health System Consortium Joint Safety, Risk, Quality and Legal Council Meeting, Phoenix, Arizona.
April 2010	“Deep Dive for Patient Safety” — Poster Presentation - Canadian Patient Safety Institute Annual Conference, Toronto, Canada.
October 2009	The Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act: A Prescription for Interdisciplinary Team Improvement” — Abstract accepted for Podium Presentation at The Irish and American Paediatric Society Annual Meeting, Buffalo, New York.