Ilene Corina is a Board-Certified Patient Advocate and the President and founder of Pulse Center for Patient Safety Education & Advocacy. She was instrumental in getting New York State lawmakers to pass the landmark legislation, Patient Health Information and Quality Improvement Act of 2000, which called for the creation of a statewide health information system to make available to the public a wide range of data on New York physicians. During her work around New York State, she grew concerned about the stories of medical injuries and started a support group in 1996. These stories and experiences became the focus of her community patient support and education.

Ilene was selected as one of Modern Healthcare’s 100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare in 2009 and as one of the 50 Experts Leading the Field in Patient Safety, Becker’s Hospital Review, 2013. She received a scholarship to the American Hospital Association/National Patient Safety Foundation Patient Safety Leadership Training, where she developed the Healthcare Equality Project to study the needs of vulnerable populations using today’s healthcare system. She still continues this work which focuses on the outcomes and making improvements.

A board member of the National Patient Safety Foundation from 2002 through 2017, Ilene co-chaired the Patient and Family Advisory Council from 2002 to 2006. In 2002, she spearheaded the first Patient Safety Awareness Week, which shed light on the importance of partnerships between patients and healthcare professionals in reducing medical harm.

Ilene was a board member of the Joint Commission from 2005 through 2018. As a Commissioner she served on the Commission’s Health Literacy Public Policy Roundtable, the workgroup that developed Advancing Effective Communication, Cultural Competence, and Patient- and Family-Centered Care for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Community, and she served as board liaison to the Patient and Family Advisory Council. From 2017 through 2019 she became the first public member of the Nurse Advisory Group to The Joint Commission.

A mediator trained in compassionate communication, Ilene uses this skill to work with patients and their families after a medical injury or death has occurred, and she has developed curriculum on disclosure of medical errors which has been used in physician resident training. Ilene has produced and directed numerous videos and audios for patient safety education. Her work has been published by The American Journal of Nursing and Perioperative Nursing Clinics, and in Elsevier’s Patient Safety in Obstetrics and Gynecology Journal.

She has authored a book, Teaching Patient Safety, an Educators’ Guide. She co-authored Family Centered Patient Advocacy, a Training Manual, and writes Rants of a Patient Safety Advocate: Stories from the Bedside. Ilene led a team in developing the first training curriculum focused on Family-Centered Patient Advocacy, which helps families become part of the healthcare team. She has been teaching this course since 2006 and developed curriculum on being an advocate, for high schools and the community. She has been an advisor to the Institute for Safe Medication Practices for over a decade.

Along with her team, she focuses on vulnerable populations and patient safety diversity and has traveled nationally presenting “The Elephant in the Room: Dispelling the Myths About Being Transgender”. She has led patient safety consulting projects for major health systems.

Ilene has appeared as a patient safety expert on many news shows and has been quoted in news articles in many newspapers and magazines. She has won awards for her work including the ISMP Cheers Award and the MITSS HOPE Award. Ilene is certified to teach Cultural Competency and Health Literacy, and visits middle schools, high schools and community groups to help members of the public understand their role in patient safety.

She is presently leading a team on The TakeCHARGE Campaign: 5 Steps to Safer Health Care, and has developed a curriculum to train Ambassadors to share the program. She oversees a group of volunteers who assist in offering no fewer than three presentations each month where interested community members, people who use the healthcare system regularly, patient advocates and medical professionals come together to learn from each other.

Personal experience propelled her work in patient safety and advocacy; she has spent more than 1,000 hours at the bedsides of patients as their advocate, and blogs about these experiences. She helps families navigate the healthcare system at the bedside, and through classes and workshops.