Barbara H. Prichard, BSN, MBA
Director, Consultant Management and Development, Joint Commission Resources, Inc.
Barbara Prichard brings extensive health care experience, both clinical and organizational, to her role as Director, Consultant Management and Development, for Joint Commission Resources, and as a consultant for Joint Commission International, serving clients in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. She also serves hospitals and health care organizations around the US in the Continuous Service Readiness® (CSR) program.
Ms. Prichard has more than two decades of clinical, instructional, and executive experience in health care, service in medical staff relations, and board level experience in various organizations including management services organizations, physician hospital organizations, hospital association and health care networks. Her understanding of the dynamics of both hospital and physician environments, and the legislative, regulatory and reimbursement challenges facing health care organizations, contributes to her ability to provide meaningful assistance to health care organizations as they strive for either initial accreditation or continuous accreditation compliance.
Her most recent appointment was as Assistant Administrator of a rural community hospital where her responsibilities included operations, financial modeling and forecasting, Joint Commission accreditation, performance improvement, and oversight of clinical functions. Ms. Prichard’s facility was actively involved in piloting rural health technology, such as telemedicine, and in regularly hosting representatives from the US Congress and CMS for demonstrations of legislative impact on rural hospital viability. She served as President of the Board of Directors of a for-profit MSO that was put together by the Delta Rural Health Alliance, in order to facilitate the ability of freestanding rural facilities in impoverished areas to cope with the challenges of rapid changes in reimbursement, technology, and regulatory requirements.
She is a frequent speaker on medical staff standards on both the state and national level, and is often a featured speaker on issues such as patient-provider communications, and other accreditation updates. Ms. Prichard is also a Joint Commission-certified Yellow Belt.
She has recently served on the Mississippi Hospital Association’s Health Facilities Licensure and Certification Liaison Committee, which regularly brings together hospitals and various regulatory bodies, such as CMS and The Joint Commission, to clarify requirements. She has served on the Mississippi Hospital Association Board of Governors, and the MHA Legislative Committee. She chaired the MHA Task Force on Court Committed Psychiatric Patient Legislation, and has been a founding board member of several MSO and PHO organizations.
A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Ms. Prichard received her education at Stanford University (Asian Studies), the University of Mississippi (Nursing), and Tulane University (Business – Global Finance), receiving the award for the Outstanding Graduate in both her Nursing and MBA programs.