Dr Jean Gayton Carroll, Editor in Chief of Quality Management in Healthcare (QMHC), passed away in Chicago, Illinois, on September 9, 2014. Jean was the voice of QMHC since 1998, and her editorial leadership developed QMHC into an important resource for quality improvement professionals.
She was born on October 13, 1917, and received 3 degrees from the University of Chicago: an AB in 1938, an AM in 1953, and a PhD in Sociology in 1969. Her dissertation topic was "The Structure of Teaching Hospitals." During this time, Dr Carrol met 2 current QMHC editorial board members, Duncan Neuhauser and Stephen Shortell, who were also getting their PhD degrees. They have remained lifelong colleagues. Jean also wrote several books about monitoring patient progress, restructuring for hospital quality, and patient care audit criteria.
Throughout her career, Jean dedicated herself to improving the care of patients worldwide. She had extensive influence in quality and process improvement and policy and standards development. She worked for the Columbia HCA, Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association of America, and the Centers for Quality Assurance (Cairo). In addition, she served as the Director of International Programs for the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and as a health care policy advisor to ministries of health and government-sponsored health care agencies in Saudi Arabia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia. She also held a faculty position at Rush University in Chicago.
She worked on this journal to the very end of her life out of her apartment on 230 East Delaware Place in the north side of Chicago. Her editorial imprint on QMHC is clear. This journal became internationally known for publishing important work; for example, the studies from Jonkoping Sweden and new quantitative quality improvement methods. She would publish articles that went outside the conservative comfort zone of other journals and thereby gave QMHC a reputation for innovativeness.
Jean's legacy is considerable, and her contribution to the success of the journal will always be with us.