Staff

Professor Bill Runciman

Bill has been President of the Australian Patient Safety Foundation since its inception in 1988, when, together with anaesthesia colleagues, he conceptualised and implemented AIMS in the form of a nation-wide paper-based anaesthesia incident monitoring project. Since then he has provided leadership and made fundamental contributions to patient safety and quality research both in Australia and internationally. Bill was concurrently the Foundation Professor of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care at the University of Adelaide and Head of Department at the Royal Adelaide Hospital from 1988 to 2007. He was a member of the Australian Council for Safety and Quality in Health Care and of the Australian Health Information Council. In 2007, Bill was appointed as a Professorial Research Fellow in Patient Safety at the Joanna Briggs Institute of University of Adelaide and Royal Adelaide Hospital. He also held appointments as an Adjunct Professor, Human Factors in Healthcare, at the University of South Australia and a Visiting Professor in Change Management at the Centre for Clinical Governance Research in Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of New South Wales. Currently Bill is Professor of Patient Safety & Healthcare Human Factors, School of Psychology, Social Work & Social Policy, University of South Australia, Professorial Research Fellow for the Joanna Briggs Institute, Royal Adelaide Hospital and Visiting Professor, Australian Institute of Health Innovation, University of NSW. Bill was a co-author of the landmark Quality in Australian Health Care Study published in the Medical Journal of Australia (MJA) in 1995, one of the top 10 cited studies published in the MJA. Bill has been involved in the publication of over 200 scientific papers and chapters and has given over 600 lectures by invitation. In 2007, he published the patient safety textbook: Runciman B, Merry A, Walton M, 'Safety and Ethics in Healthcare: a Guide to Getting It Right', Ashgate, Aldershot, 2007. In 2007, Bill was awarded the Pugh Award of the Australian Society of Anaesthetists in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the science of anaesthesia, intensive care or related disciplines. In 2008, Bill was also awarded the Sidney Sax Medal of the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association for outstanding contribution in the field of health services policy, organisation, delivery and research.

Dr Klee Benveniste

Klee is a Research Fellow at APSF. She has a Ph.D. in injury epidemiology from Flinders University School of Medicine (awarded 1996) and has been employed in a variety of medical research support positions over 35 years. Previous positions include the Department of Community Medicine at the University of Adelaide/Royal Adelaide Hospital, the Department of Primary Care and Community Medicine at the Flinders University of South Australia, Southern Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, and on her own grants at Flinders Medical Centre where she was also a practising psychologist in the field of clinical psychology for over 15 years. Klee has been a registered psychologist and Member of the Australian Psychological Society for over 30 years. Klee has extensive experience in literature review, data analysis, report preparation and publication of research in the field of public health. At the APSF, she has taken part in consultancies for State and Commonwealth government health departments on patient safety in hospitals and nursing homes, preparing reports on incidents in nursing homes, and incidents involving equipment, violence, incorrect patient identification, or burns in hospitals. She has published articles on incident monitoring, anaesthesia safety, and aggression in the health workplace. Klee is acknowledged for literature research on many of the APSF publications, including Professor Runciman's book on 'Safety and Ethics in Healthcare' and provides research for grants and presentations. She also assisted with research for publications of the World Health Organization's World Alliance for Patient Safety. Her research interests have also included the problem of contaminated surgical equipment due to design and cleaning issues. Her current work is literature review of various types of adverse events in radiology. Her general interest is human behaviour in healthcare. Klee joined the APSF in 2001.

Dr Tim Schultz

Tim is Technical Director and responsible for the day-to-day management of the APSF. He has a research background in comparative physiology and has recently completed a Graduate Diploma in Public Health (University of Adelaide) and works part-time as a Research Fellow at the Joanna Briggs Institute. He has experience in conducting and developing methods for systematic reviews, evaluation of health services and patient safety initiatives and translating research evidence into practice. Tim is responsible for ensuring the security of the national aggregated patient safety databases stored at the APSF, and co-ordinates database searches, interpretation and analysis of patient safety incidents. Current projects include evaluation of TeamSTEPPS for the South Australian Department of Health, management of the Radiology Adverse Events Register for the Quality Use of Diagnostic Imaging Program, and Collaborations for Translating Research into Practice. Tim commenced at the APSF in May 2008.

Ms Natalie Hannaford

Natalie is a Senior Analyst at APSF. She is a registered nurse with an extensive clinical background in Oncology, Gastroenterology and Day Procedure/Endoscopy. Prior to commencing her role at APSF in September 2007, Natalie worked as a Clinical Manager within the private hospital sector in Adelaide. In this role, she was responsible for quality and safety management and she worked extensively on many safety initiatives. Natalie’s main role at APSF involves analysis and reporting on the data entered into AIMS for the various projects conducted by APSF. Natalie was also contracted to the South Australian Department of Health Safety and Quality branch following commencement of her role and gained extensive knowledge of the AIMS system. She is currently studying a Graduate Diploma in Public Health through the University of Sydney.