Dr. Safford is Medical Director for Quality Performance for Family Care Network, a 48 family physician group without walls in northwest Washington. She is a board-certified family physician who also continues her part-time family practice. Prior to becoming medical director for Family Care Network, she served for twelve years as Whatcom County Medical Director of Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound, implementing Group Health's quality improvement process in the network model.
Dr. Safford's primary interest is improving quality of care. Her community is one of the 7 national recipients of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation "Pursuing Perfection" healthcare grants. Her private practice in Ferndale is the grant pilot site for idealized practice redesign. Prior to this, she led Family Care Network's successful completion of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's 13-month Breakthrough Series on Chronic Illness, demonstrating measurable improvement in the outcomes of diabetic patients. She continues her work to fully implement the chronic illness model throughout Family Care Network. She was a member of the AAFP Commission on Health Care Services from 1993-1998, and chaired the commission in 1999. She also served on the AAFP Commission on Quality and Scope of Practice from 2001 - 2004.
