Modern Healthcare tapped him as one of the 25 most influential leaders in health care during the past quarter century. In many circles, Dennis O'Leary and The Joint Commission continue to be synonymous even since retiring after 20 years as president. The Joint Commission didn't just change its name because of his transformational leadership. It embraced healthcare providing organizations in the U.S. and abroad, shifting its entire focus to address how organizations actually perform when they provide patient care. This set the stage for introducing care-related outcomes and process measures among them cutting-edge standards for patient safety, pain management, use of patient restraints and emergency preparedness.
A nurse serving on the Joint Commission Board describes Dr. O'Leary as "steadfast in his support and recognition of nursing's critical role in quality and patient safety." He convened a roundtable elevated the nurse staffing crisis in the public policy arena and has endorsed efforts to raise nursing's voice in very aspect of The Joint Commission's work by supporting the creation of a Nursing Advisory Council within The Joint Commission. Which explains his public admiration for AACN. At a Washington, DC, news conference in 2005, it was Dr. O'Leary who made a compelling case for why healthcare urgently needed AACN's healthy work environment standards.
