John McElhinney

Group Quality & Patient Safety Manager, Saolta University Health Care Group

John McElhinney is the Quality and Safety Manager for the seven acute hospitals that make up the West North West Hospitals Group. He had previously held the position of Risk Advisor at Sligo Regional Hospital for several years. John spent fifteen years working overseas in the UK, Middle East and Australia specialising in Critical Care Nursing. Prior to returning to Ireland John held the position as Quality Improvement Manager at the Princess Elizabeth Hospital and Joint Clinical Governance lead with the States of Guernsey Board of Health in the Channel Islands. John holds a BA (Hons) in Psychology and Political Science from the University of New South Wales, a B.Sc. in Health Sciences from Southern Cross University, New South Wales, a Higher Diploma in Healthcare Risk Management from UCD and an MBA from the Smurfit Business School. He also holds nursing qualifications in Mental Health, General, Critical Care and Nursing Education. John has published several papers on the subject of risk management and patient safety and has presented at various conferences on Quality, Patient Safety, Risk Management and Clinical Governance related topics. His main areas of interest include the role of human factors in clinical error, continuous quality improvement and Corporate and Clinical Governance.