Associate Director, Total Systems Safety ECRI
Kristen Crandall is a nationally recognized patient safety leader and practicing pediatric nurse who translates safety science into operational reality, helping healthcare organizations build systems that prevent harm before it occurs. Kristen is a safety leader and integrator who bridges the gap between safety science and frontline clinical reality. She has authored peer-reviewed research on improving safety event analysis reliability and debriefing and regularly contributes as a speaker and educator on topics including systems thinking, high reliability, reducing preventable harm, safety culture, cause analysis and sustainable healthcare improvement.
Drawing on over 19 years of clinical and leadership experience spanning pediatric inpatient, emergency, and ambulatory care, Kristen leads high-impact, cross-functional consulting efforts at ECRI that span system design, human factors engineering, Just Culture, and safety event analysis, each aimed at reducing preventable harm through solutions that are cohesive, operationally grounded, and built to last.
Her service on the National Steering Committee for Patient Safety, combined with her continued active clinical practice as a pediatric nurse, ensures that regardless of the safety challenge at hand, her perspectives are practical, current, and grounded in the realities of care delivery.
