FTCA Deeming Application Clinic

Federal Tort Claims Act Policy and Compliance Team Lead
Federal Tort Claims Act Program

Cara Wzorek, MA, MWC, Program Manager, Ambulatory Risk Management Services, ECRI

Cara Wzorek is program manager for ambulatory risk management services at ECRI and editor of Ambulatory Care Risk Management. She has been with ECRI’s Patient Safety, Risk, and Quality team for more than 18 years, the last 10 of which have been working with programs in support of health centers and free clinics on behalf of HRSA. As part of that program, Ms. Wzorek leads development of ECRI's webinars, toolkits, guidance documents, and outreach to federally qualified health centers, providing evidence-based recommendations for improving patient safety and reducing risk to providers in FQHCs. She has written and spoken on a wide variety of topics, ranging from test tracking and follow-up to drug diversion and workplace violence prevention. Ms. Wzorek holds a Master's degree from Temple University (Philadelphia, PA); she is also a medical writer certified™ (MWC).

Sarah Creswell, RN, MSN, CPHQ, HEM, CPPS, Senior Patient Safety Analyst/Consultant, ECRI

Sarah Creswell joined ECRI in February 2019 and currently serves as a patient safety, risk, and quality analyst and consultant. Her roles and responsibilities in this position include maintaining expertise in malpractice claims trends and other topics of interest to HRSA-funded health centers and free clinics and researching and writing content for guidance articles, webinars, conference presentations, toolkits, and self-assessment checklists. She is a registered nurse with over 17 years of healthcare experience in a multitude of settings including pharmacy, clinical laboratory, behavioral health, ambulatory care, medical-surgical nursing, and healthcare quality. Ms. Creswell previously served as patient safety coordinator and quality coordinator for health systems, where she supported safety and quality processes across medical, surgical, nursing, ancillary, and ambulatory departments. She is a member of the National Association for Healthcare Quality. Ms. Creswell has written and presented on topics such as coordination of care transitions and the role of ambulatory nursing leadership in mammography screening.​

Sylvia Garcia-Houchins is the Director, Infection Prevention and Control in the Division of Healthcare Improvement. In this role, she is responsible for the oversight of infection prevention and control for The Joint Commission.
Ms. Garcia-Houchins has over 30 years of experience in infection control in both hospital and long term care settings, as well as eight years of clinical microbiology experience. Most recently, she served as the Director, Infection Control at University of Chicago Medicine and was also an intermittent consultant for Joint Commission Resources for 10 years. Ms. Garcia-Houchins has provided infection prevention and control consultation, assessment and education in a variety of health care settings including hospitals, health clinics, ambulatory surgery, and dialysis centers both
domestically and internationally. Her specialty areas of interest include disinfection and sterilization, dialysis, infection prevention during renovation and construction, and control of Legionella. One of the highlights of her career has been training health care professionals in Saudi Arabia as Infection Preventionists. She served as a test writer and reviewer for the Certification Board of Infection Control and Epidemiology, and has also authored numerous articles and book chapters related to infection control including a chapter in the APIC Text and the Cleaning, Disinfection and Sterilization Chapter in The APIC/JCR Infection Prevention and Control Workbook, Third Edition.

Ms. Garcia-Houchins earned a degree in biochemistry and molecular biology from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, a master’s of business administration from the Keller Graduate School of Management, and her nursing degree from Truman College and common maintenance required for table-top sterilizers.

Linda Burke MD, MS, FACOG is a Diplomate of the American Board of Obstetrician-Gynecologists, a fellow of the American College of Obstetricians-Gynecologists, and has over 35 years of clinical experience.   

Dr. Burke received her Doctor of Medicine from Boston University School of Medicine, a Master of Science from Columbia University School of Social Work, and a post-baccalaureate certificate in clinical informatics from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. 

She has worked relentlessly to reduce preventable stillbirths and maternal mortality throughout her professional career, including the National Health Service Corps, county health departments, community health centers, and on Native American reservations. In addition, she was an HRSA contractor for almost two decades as a subject expert and is quite adept at managing high-risk pregnancies and women with complex medical conditions.

She is a former member of ACOG District 12 Perinatal/Morbidity Committee, a volunteer Assistant Professor at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine, and the author of The Smart Mother’s Guide to a Better Pregnancy prenatal book. In addition, she recently founded WHYS™ (We Hear You, Sister!), an online database directory of Black Obstetrician-Gynecologist physicians.

Dr. Burke is from Brooklyn, N.Y.  but has lived in Florida for over two decades and is the mother of two sons who continue to make her proud.

Adam has over 25 years of experience in technology including 14 years performing consulting services in Health Information Privacy and Security. Adam is experienced in conducting a variety of security and compliance assessments in health information security against standards such as HIPAA, MARS-e, IRS, SOC2, and ISO 27001. This builds on his experience as a Software Developer, Systems Administrator, Business Analyst, Project Manager, and Operations Manager. Adam has held a CISSP certification since 2010 and has focused primarily on Health Information Privacy and Security Consulting since that time performing Security Risk Assessment and Compliance services for Healthcare organizations focused on meeting HIPAA and Meaningful Use requirements. Adam has a proven ability to address the most technical aspects of information security while maintaining an ability to translate complex issues to non-technical audiences.

Federal Tort Claims Act Policy and Compliance Team Lead
Federal Tort Claims Act Program

Cara Wzorek, MA, MWC, Program Manager, Ambulatory Risk Management Services, ECRI

Cara Wzorek is program manager for ambulatory risk management services at ECRI and editor of Ambulatory Care Risk Management. She has been with ECRI’s Patient Safety, Risk, and Quality team for more than 18 years, the last 10 of which have been working with programs in support of health centers and free clinics on behalf of HRSA. As part of that program, Ms. Wzorek leads development of ECRI's webinars, toolkits, guidance documents, and outreach to federally qualified health centers, providing evidence-based recommendations for improving patient safety and reducing risk to providers in FQHCs. She has written and spoken on a wide variety of topics, ranging from test tracking and follow-up to drug diversion and workplace violence prevention. Ms. Wzorek holds a Master's degree from Temple University (Philadelphia, PA); she is also a medical writer certified™ (MWC).

Sarah Creswell, RN, MSN, CPHQ, HEM, CPPS, Senior Patient Safety Analyst/Consultant, ECRI

Sarah Creswell joined ECRI in February 2019 and currently serves as a patient safety, risk, and quality analyst and consultant. Her roles and responsibilities in this position include maintaining expertise in malpractice claims trends and other topics of interest to HRSA-funded health centers and free clinics and researching and writing content for guidance articles, webinars, conference presentations, toolkits, and self-assessment checklists. She is a registered nurse with over 17 years of healthcare experience in a multitude of settings including pharmacy, clinical laboratory, behavioral health, ambulatory care, medical-surgical nursing, and healthcare quality. Ms. Creswell previously served as patient safety coordinator and quality coordinator for health systems, where she supported safety and quality processes across medical, surgical, nursing, ancillary, and ambulatory departments. She is a member of the National Association for Healthcare Quality. Ms. Creswell has written and presented on topics such as coordination of care transitions and the role of ambulatory nursing leadership in mammography screening.​

Sylvia Garcia-Houchins is the Director, Infection Prevention and Control in the Division of Healthcare Improvement. In this role, she is responsible for the oversight of infection prevention and control for The Joint Commission.
Ms. Garcia-Houchins has over 30 years of experience in infection control in both hospital and long term care settings, as well as eight years of clinical microbiology experience. Most recently, she served as the Director, Infection Control at University of Chicago Medicine and was also an intermittent consultant for Joint Commission Resources for 10 years. Ms. Garcia-Houchins has provided infection prevention and control consultation, assessment and education in a variety of health care settings including hospitals, health clinics, ambulatory surgery, and dialysis centers both
domestically and internationally. Her specialty areas of interest include disinfection and sterilization, dialysis, infection prevention during renovation and construction, and control of Legionella. One of the highlights of her career has been training health care professionals in Saudi Arabia as Infection Preventionists. She served as a test writer and reviewer for the Certification Board of Infection Control and Epidemiology, and has also authored numerous articles and book chapters related to infection control including a chapter in the APIC Text and the Cleaning, Disinfection and Sterilization Chapter in The APIC/JCR Infection Prevention and Control Workbook, Third Edition.

Ms. Garcia-Houchins earned a degree in biochemistry and molecular biology from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, a master’s of business administration from the Keller Graduate School of Management, and her nursing degree from Truman College and common maintenance required for table-top sterilizers.

Linda Burke MD, MS, FACOG is a Diplomate of the American Board of Obstetrician-Gynecologists, a fellow of the American College of Obstetricians-Gynecologists, and has over 35 years of clinical experience.   

Dr. Burke received her Doctor of Medicine from Boston University School of Medicine, a Master of Science from Columbia University School of Social Work, and a post-baccalaureate certificate in clinical informatics from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. 

She has worked relentlessly to reduce preventable stillbirths and maternal mortality throughout her professional career, including the National Health Service Corps, county health departments, community health centers, and on Native American reservations. In addition, she was an HRSA contractor for almost two decades as a subject expert and is quite adept at managing high-risk pregnancies and women with complex medical conditions.

She is a former member of ACOG District 12 Perinatal/Morbidity Committee, a volunteer Assistant Professor at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine, and the author of The Smart Mother’s Guide to a Better Pregnancy prenatal book. In addition, she recently founded WHYS™ (We Hear You, Sister!), an online database directory of Black Obstetrician-Gynecologist physicians.

Dr. Burke is from Brooklyn, N.Y.  but has lived in Florida for over two decades and is the mother of two sons who continue to make her proud.

Adam has over 25 years of experience in technology including 14 years performing consulting services in Health Information Privacy and Security. Adam is experienced in conducting a variety of security and compliance assessments in health information security against standards such as HIPAA, MARS-e, IRS, SOC2, and ISO 27001. This builds on his experience as a Software Developer, Systems Administrator, Business Analyst, Project Manager, and Operations Manager. Adam has held a CISSP certification since 2010 and has focused primarily on Health Information Privacy and Security Consulting since that time performing Security Risk Assessment and Compliance services for Healthcare organizations focused on meeting HIPAA and Meaningful Use requirements. Adam has a proven ability to address the most technical aspects of information security while maintaining an ability to translate complex issues to non-technical audiences.

Federal Tort Claims Act Policy and Compliance Team Lead
Federal Tort Claims Act Program

Cara Wzorek, MA, MWC, Program Manager, Ambulatory Risk Management Services, ECRI

Cara Wzorek is program manager for ambulatory risk management services at ECRI and editor of Ambulatory Care Risk Management. She has been with ECRI’s Patient Safety, Risk, and Quality team for more than 18 years, the last 10 of which have been working with programs in support of health centers and free clinics on behalf of HRSA. As part of that program, Ms. Wzorek leads development of ECRI's webinars, toolkits, guidance documents, and outreach to federally qualified health centers, providing evidence-based recommendations for improving patient safety and reducing risk to providers in FQHCs. She has written and spoken on a wide variety of topics, ranging from test tracking and follow-up to drug diversion and workplace violence prevention. Ms. Wzorek holds a Master's degree from Temple University (Philadelphia, PA); she is also a medical writer certified™ (MWC).

Sarah Creswell, RN, MSN, CPHQ, HEM, CPPS, Senior Patient Safety Analyst/Consultant, ECRI

Sarah Creswell joined ECRI in February 2019 and currently serves as a patient safety, risk, and quality analyst and consultant. Her roles and responsibilities in this position include maintaining expertise in malpractice claims trends and other topics of interest to HRSA-funded health centers and free clinics and researching and writing content for guidance articles, webinars, conference presentations, toolkits, and self-assessment checklists. She is a registered nurse with over 17 years of healthcare experience in a multitude of settings including pharmacy, clinical laboratory, behavioral health, ambulatory care, medical-surgical nursing, and healthcare quality. Ms. Creswell previously served as patient safety coordinator and quality coordinator for health systems, where she supported safety and quality processes across medical, surgical, nursing, ancillary, and ambulatory departments. She is a member of the National Association for Healthcare Quality. Ms. Creswell has written and presented on topics such as coordination of care transitions and the role of ambulatory nursing leadership in mammography screening.​

Sylvia Garcia-Houchins is the Director, Infection Prevention and Control in the Division of Healthcare Improvement. In this role, she is responsible for the oversight of infection prevention and control for The Joint Commission.
Ms. Garcia-Houchins has over 30 years of experience in infection control in both hospital and long term care settings, as well as eight years of clinical microbiology experience. Most recently, she served as the Director, Infection Control at University of Chicago Medicine and was also an intermittent consultant for Joint Commission Resources for 10 years. Ms. Garcia-Houchins has provided infection prevention and control consultation, assessment and education in a variety of health care settings including hospitals, health clinics, ambulatory surgery, and dialysis centers both
domestically and internationally. Her specialty areas of interest include disinfection and sterilization, dialysis, infection prevention during renovation and construction, and control of Legionella. One of the highlights of her career has been training health care professionals in Saudi Arabia as Infection Preventionists. She served as a test writer and reviewer for the Certification Board of Infection Control and Epidemiology, and has also authored numerous articles and book chapters related to infection control including a chapter in the APIC Text and the Cleaning, Disinfection and Sterilization Chapter in The APIC/JCR Infection Prevention and Control Workbook, Third Edition.

Ms. Garcia-Houchins earned a degree in biochemistry and molecular biology from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, a master’s of business administration from the Keller Graduate School of Management, and her nursing degree from Truman College and common maintenance required for table-top sterilizers.

Linda Burke MD, MS, FACOG is a Diplomate of the American Board of Obstetrician-Gynecologists, a fellow of the American College of Obstetricians-Gynecologists, and has over 35 years of clinical experience.   

Dr. Burke received her Doctor of Medicine from Boston University School of Medicine, a Master of Science from Columbia University School of Social Work, and a post-baccalaureate certificate in clinical informatics from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. 

She has worked relentlessly to reduce preventable stillbirths and maternal mortality throughout her professional career, including the National Health Service Corps, county health departments, community health centers, and on Native American reservations. In addition, she was an HRSA contractor for almost two decades as a subject expert and is quite adept at managing high-risk pregnancies and women with complex medical conditions.

She is a former member of ACOG District 12 Perinatal/Morbidity Committee, a volunteer Assistant Professor at the University of Central Florida College of Medicine, and the author of The Smart Mother’s Guide to a Better Pregnancy prenatal book. In addition, she recently founded WHYS™ (We Hear You, Sister!), an online database directory of Black Obstetrician-Gynecologist physicians.

Dr. Burke is from Brooklyn, N.Y.  but has lived in Florida for over two decades and is the mother of two sons who continue to make her proud.

Adam has over 25 years of experience in technology including 14 years performing consulting services in Health Information Privacy and Security. Adam is experienced in conducting a variety of security and compliance assessments in health information security against standards such as HIPAA, MARS-e, IRS, SOC2, and ISO 27001. This builds on his experience as a Software Developer, Systems Administrator, Business Analyst, Project Manager, and Operations Manager. Adam has held a CISSP certification since 2010 and has focused primarily on Health Information Privacy and Security Consulting since that time performing Security Risk Assessment and Compliance services for Healthcare organizations focused on meeting HIPAA and Meaningful Use requirements. Adam has a proven ability to address the most technical aspects of information security while maintaining an ability to translate complex issues to non-technical audiences.