Altarum Author: 

Catherine Call

Cathy Call Image
Catherine Call
Director, Health Care Quality Research, Altarum Institute

During a career that has spanned three decades, Cathy Call has been instrumental in the development of health care quality improvement initiatives for the Department of Defense.
 
With more than 30 years experience in health care, including military medicine, she brings experience in developing and administering complex health re-engineering programs; targeting force reduction while maintaining highest quality patient care; and strategic planning, policy development, and operational deployment.  As a Registered Nurse, she was involved in direct care for pediatrics and medical-surgical patients, nursing education, readiness, hospital administration, and quality management.
 
Ms. Call has been closely involved with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Evaluation of Mental Health Services and the U.S. Department of Defense Mission Essential Non-Benefit Activity (MENBA) contracts.  The MENBA contract is looking at non-clinical tasks that the Military Healthcare System does that is essential but not captured by coding or is not a medical benefit.
 
Ms. Call is a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ), selected to join the National Nurses Honor Society, Sigma Theta Tau; and is a member of the Program Management Institute.  She is trained in the PMI framework for project management.  She attended Villanova University and was trained in Lean Thinking and Six Sigma Black Belt.
 
Ms. Call received her bachelor of science degree in nursing from the University of Connecticut, and has a masters of science degrees in education and in nursing (M.S.Ed. and M.S.N.) from Boston University.