Mary Anne Hilliard, Esq, RN, FAAN
Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Officer
Mary Anne Hilliard, Esq, RN, FAAN
Mary Anne Hilliard, Esq., R.N., F.A.A.N., is executive vice president and chief legal officer at Children's National Hospital. She oversees legal services, risk management, compliance, internal audit, insurance, workers' compensation and captive management. In addition to being a lawyer, Mary Anne is also a registered nurse who practiced at Children’s National in the early part of her career. She went on to practice law in Washington, D.C., specializing in healthcare law issues and malpractice defense. She is extensively published and lectures widely at hospitals, universities and associations on healthcare law issues.
Committed to the concept that the best way to manage risk is to prevent it, Mary Anne has led many local and national grant-funded initiatives to share risk data and study pediatric outcomes to reduce serious adverse events. On the financial side of risk management, she was involved in the creation of two captive insurance companies and is responsible for the ongoing operation of those corporate entities.
Under her leadership, Children’s National has enjoyed numerous patient safety awards and distinctions, including Leapfrog designation several years in a row, the Child Health Corporation of America Race for Results award (twice), the George Mason Quality Improvement of the Year Award and the DC Hospital Association Patient Safety Award. Children’s National was also among the first in the country to launch a patient safety program that materially prevented harm through coordinated workforce engagement. As part of this cultural change effort, Mary Anne worked with federal congressional staff on legislation that advanced the organization’s high reliability safety approach and served as a model across all U.S. hospitals.
Mary Anne also led a governance transformation effort which empowered and modernized the influence of the Children’s Board thus positioning Children’s National to protect and advance its mission of excellence during the pandemic and into the future.
After serving many years as the president of the local American Society of Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM), Mary Anne was elected to serve a three-year term on the National Board of ASHRM., In 2012, she served as the President of ASHRM and led a “Journey to Zero” campaign that focused on eliminating preventable errors in treatment.
She was inducted into the 2020 class of American Academy of Nursing fellows.
Committed to the concept that the best way to manage risk is to prevent it, Mary Anne has led many local and national grant-funded initiatives to share risk data and study pediatric outcomes to reduce serious adverse events. On the financial side of risk management, she was involved in the creation of two captive insurance companies and is responsible for the ongoing operation of those corporate entities.
Under her leadership, Children’s National has enjoyed numerous patient safety awards and distinctions, including Leapfrog designation several years in a row, the Child Health Corporation of America Race for Results award (twice), the George Mason Quality Improvement of the Year Award and the DC Hospital Association Patient Safety Award. Children’s National was also among the first in the country to launch a patient safety program that materially prevented harm through coordinated workforce engagement. As part of this cultural change effort, Mary Anne worked with federal congressional staff on legislation that advanced the organization’s high reliability safety approach and served as a model across all U.S. hospitals.
Mary Anne also led a governance transformation effort which empowered and modernized the influence of the Children’s Board thus positioning Children’s National to protect and advance its mission of excellence during the pandemic and into the future.
After serving many years as the president of the local American Society of Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM), Mary Anne was elected to serve a three-year term on the National Board of ASHRM., In 2012, she served as the President of ASHRM and led a “Journey to Zero” campaign that focused on eliminating preventable errors in treatment.
She was inducted into the 2020 class of American Academy of Nursing fellows.