QUAD A would like to congratulate Dr. Janice Izlar, DNAP, CRNA, FAANA, on her retirement and honor her contributions as a member of our Board of Directors. Dr. Izlar’s work has greatly influenced QUAD A Standards for patient care and has been instrumental in progressing and protecting the mission of patient safety.
A native of North Carolina, Dr. Izlar attended the Nurse Anesthesia program at North Carolina Baptist Hospital (now Wake Forest), where she received her diploma. She then continued her education at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma, graduating cum laude with a bachelor's degree in biology and nursing. Dr. Izlar obtained a Master of Science in Nursing from Columbia University in New York City and a Doctorate in Nurse Anesthesia Practice from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.
Following her academic journey, Dr. Izlar has held many prestigious positions. In 1996, she was made Chief Clinic Nurse Anesthetist and Administrator of Anesthesia Services at the Georgia Institute of Plastic Surgery in Savannah. A long-standing member of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA), many local and regional affiliates have benefited from her service on numerous local and national committees. She was elected to the AANA board of directors in 2009, progressing to national Vice President and subsequently elected President in 2012. Additionally, she served on the AANA Foundation and numerous AANA committees.
Dr. Izlar was added to the QUAD A board of directors in March 2014. In 2019, she was added as a member of the QUAD A Educational Foundation. Throughout her time with QUAD A, she served as an active member of the Investigative and Surveyor Quality Assurance committees, and was appointed Chair of the Standards Committee in 2017.
During her time as Chair of the Standards Committee, Dr. Izlar worked tirelessly on standards related to Mobile Anesthesia, Medical Judgement, Healthcare Professionals’ Credentials, and Observation of Care. She was instrumental in the standards overhaul, spending a tremendous amount of time reviewing, making recommendations, and adding structure to the waiver process. Dr. Izlar was an active member of the board. Patient safety was at the core of her focus. When she was not busy overseeing standards changes and reviewing waivers, she worked strategically to research and recommend new members to the board of directors.
Throughout her career, Dr. Izlar held numerous committee and board positions outside of QUAD A, including chairing the Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Committee, where she advised the Georgia Board of Nursing, appointed member of the Georgia Board of Nursing and elected Board President in 2016. She also served on the Joint Commission Professional Technical Advisory Committee for Ambulatory Care and was elected president of the Georgia Association of Nurse Anesthetists (GANA). In 2000 after serving on many committees and Board positions. Her tireless advocacy for patient safety and the practice of nursing anesthesia was heard all the way to the federal level. She testified before federal agency committees and the United States Congress, promoting the advancement of nursing practice, education for all nursing disciplines, and patient safety in anesthesia. Dr. Izlar also spoke at length regarding the value of CRNAs to the American healthcare system.
As a CRNA with more than thirty years of experience, Dr. Izlar has numerous accomplishments to her credit, including the prestigious AANA Agatha Hodgins Award for outstanding achievements, which recognizes her dedication to advancing the field of nurse anesthesia. She also received the GANA Rosalie McDonald Award for excellence in nursing anesthesia. These awards recognized her work in anesthetist nursing, which entailed many lectures and speeches, including extensive talks and advocacy for the value of patient safety and the cost-effectiveness of CRNA patient care.
Dr. Izlar’s time with QUAD A saw her become the first woman and first non-physician to chair a major committee. Her guidance and experience have advanced QUAD knowledge in nursing anesthetics and enhanced our accreditation standards in ways that have been paramount to progressing our patient safety mission. The QUAD A family is honored to have worked with Dr. Izlar during her tenure with us. Her leadership has taught us many things regarding the importance of nursing in anesthetics and beyond. Dr. Izlar once said, “The patient is the center of all we do.” This simple message exemplifies a career that has, and will continue to, touch many lives that may never know of her, yet will benefit significantly from her contributions to her field. It also illustrates how our missions are aligned, and why Dr. Izlar and QUAD A were a natural partnership, because together we share in the mission of putting Patients First. Always.
The QUAD A family will miss Dr. Izlar and ask that you join us in recognizing her contributions to nursing anesthetists and wishing her the best in all that is to come for her.
Since 1980, QUAD A (a non-profit, physician founded and led global accreditation organization) has worked with thousands of healthcare facilities to standardize and improve the quality of health care they provide – believing that patient safety should always come first. To learn more about QUAD A, their accreditation process, and why it’s so important to seek out accredited facilities when making healthcare related decisions, visit www.quada.org.