Culture as the Catalyst: How Nancy DiGioacchino is Elevating Quality at Florence Healthcare

Quality is not only a framework of processes and controls. For Nancy DiGioacchino, Vice President of Quality and Compliance at Florence Healthcare, quality is a culture, a mindset, and above all, a human experience.

With over two decades of quality and compliance leadership behind her, Nancy has navigated nearly every era of the discipline, from the days of paper files and overflowing binders to the interconnected and metrics driven digital environments of modern life sciences organizations. Her ability to combine empathy, structure, and vision is what makes her stand out as a true quality leader.

When Nancy joined Florence Healthcare in 2022, the company was still running its quality management system with spreadsheets, and a patchwork of disparate tools. In an industry defined by strict regulations, auditor scrutiny, and patient safety, the limitations of a non-digital system were becoming increasingly clear.

Customers were asking difficult questions. Audit findings were increasing. Internally, the team felt the weight of manual record keeping, inconsistent document control, and a lack of visibility.

“Spreadsheets were wonderful when they came along,” she said, reflecting on the early evolution of quality tools. “But nothing compares to having everything connected, being able to trust the data, pull metrics instantly, and show auditors exactly what they need.”

This need for trustworthy and enterprise grade data became a major turning point. Quality had moved far beyond a support function. It had become a strategic and measurable driver of growth, investment, and operational excellence.

As Nancy often explains, the C suite and board no longer view quality as subjective. They expect evidence, reliable metrics, and actionable insights. And Florence needed a system that could deliver all of that and scale with the company’s rapid growth.

That realization led Florence Healthcare to ComplianceQuest.

The impact of the transition was significant. After implementing the modules for Documents, Training, Nonconformance, CAPA, Audit, and Management Review, the team began experiencing what Nancy describes as “quality coming alive” through data, through visibility, and through empowered people.

Audit outcomes improved dramatically. We observed a 75% reduction in customer audit findings after implementing CQ.

The culture transformed as well.

Nonconformances began emerging organically from teams rather than from Quality prompting them. Collaboration increased. Ownership strengthened. Quality became woven into the identity of the organization rather than being the responsibility of one department.

For Nancy, this evolution is her proudest accomplishment.

Her leadership philosophy centers on two ideas. Embrace change and keep people at the heart of quality. “One constant in life and in quality is change,” she says. “People resist it, but they live with it every day. When you help them understand the why and involve them in the how, they embrace it.”

Her superpower is simple and powerful. “Making quality human and making humans proud of quality.”

Whether she is coaching her team through an audit, partnering with cross functional leaders, or advocating for better systems, Nancy keeps culture at the forefront. She believes that a strong culture of quality is just as important as any tool or process. When people believe in quality, excellence follows naturally.

Looking ahead, Nancy sees a bright future for quality. A future filled with opportunity, innovation, and stronger alignment between technology and human decision making.

Her advice for emerging quality leaders is direct and timeless. “Always keep learning. Be a sponge. Learn every tool you can. You never know which one you will need in your next role or your next challenge.”

In a field defined by complexity, regulation, and continual change, leaders like Nancy remind us that quality is ultimately about people. How they work, how they learn, how they adapt, and how they grow.

That is where true transformation begins.