Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1013333
16 Margaret E. O'Kane. Founder and President of the National Committee for Quality Assur- ance (Washington, D.C.). In 1990, Ms. O'Kane founded the National Committee for Quality Assurance. As its current president, she helps drive quality improvement through awarding accolades like the NCQA Patient-Centered Medical Home Recognition, which is given to programs using patient-centered processes to coordinate care. In 2000 — 10 years aer Ms. O'Kane founded NCQA — the CDC bestowed her with its highest honor, the Champion of Prevention Award. She is also the recipient of the 2009 Picker Institute Individual Award for Excellence in the Advancement of Patient-Cen- tered Care, and the National Center for Healthcare Leadership's 2012 Gail L. Warden Leadership Excellence Award. Barbara Pelletreau. Senior Vice President of Patient Safety at Dignity Health (San Fran- cisco). Ms. Pelletreau joined Dignity Health's ranks more than 16 years ago and now serves as senior vice president of patient safety. Under her leadership, the 39-hospital system became one of 16 healthcare organizations to partake in CMS' Hospital Improvement Inno- vation Network in 2016. Over the past year, Dignity Health reduced hypoglycemic events by 27 percent, sepsis mortality by 16 percent, clostridium difficile events by 11 percent, and surgical site infections by 25 percent. Ms. Pelletreau also helped the system's hospitals adopt Just Culture, which recognizes how system failures affect patient safety, and early communication with patients and families aer an adverse event. Peter Pronovost, MD, PhD. Senior Vice President for Clinical Safety at United- Healthcare (Minnetonka, Minn.). Dr. Pro- novost, the developer of a checklist protocol aimed at reducing infections associated with central line catheters, became senior vice pres- ident for clinical safety at UnitedHealthcare in February 2018. Prior to joining the nation's largest health insurer, he served as senior vice president for patient safety and quality at Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Medicine and director of Hopkins' Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality. In 2008, Dr. Pronovost's work at the Armstrong Institute earned him a MacArthur Fellowship and landed him on Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Mitesh Rao, MD. Chief Patient Safety Offi- cer and Director of the Center for Advanc- ing Patient Safety at Stanford (Calif.) Health Care. Dr. Rao splits his time at Stanford Health Care between two roles: system patient safety officer and director of the system's Cen- ter for Advancing Patient Safety. He is also a board-certified emergency medicine physi- cian and an assistant professor of emergency medicine at the Stanford School of Medicine. Dr. Rao was a fellow in the acclaimed Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program and previously directed Chicago-based North- western Medicine's patient safety education program. At Northwestern, he spearheaded the integration of telemedicine into the health system to improve patient care. Robert Redfield, MD. Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Washington, D.C.). For more than 30 years, Dr. Redfield has been an engaged leader of clinical research and care of chronic human viral infections and infectious diseases, especially HIV. In March 2018, Dr. Redfield became the 18th director of the CDC and ad- ministrator for the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. He brings a breadth of public service experience to the positions; he was the founding director of the Department of Retroviral Research within the U.S. Military's HIV Research Program and spent 20 years with the U.S. Army Medical Corps. Dr. Redfield also co-founded College Park-based University of Maryland's Institute of Human Virology, and was the chief of infectious diseases and vice chair of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. Anne Schuchat, MD. Acting Principal Dep- uty Director of the Centers for Disease Con- trol and Prevention (Washington, D.C.). In 1988, Dr. Schuchat entered the public health field as an epidemic intelligence service officer at the CDC. She was the first medical director of the Active Bacterial Core surveillance of the Emerging Infections Program Network and led prevention efforts of newborn group B streptococcal disease infection in the 1990s. Since 2015, Dr. Schuchat has been the principal deputy director of the CDC, and also helmed the agency as acting director from January 2017 to July 2017 and January to March of 2018. Several high-profile experienc- es led Dr. Schuchat to her current leadership role, including acting as chief health officer for the CDC's 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic response and guiding the CDC team in its role during Beijing's 2003 SARS outbreak. Robert M. Wachter, MD. Professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francis- co. Since coining the term "hospitalist" in 1996, Dr. Wachter is oen regarded as the father of the hospitalist field. He is chair of the University of California, San Francisco's Department of Medicine, an esteemed pro- gram that oen leads the nation in National Institutes of Health grants. In 2004, e Joint Commission awarded him the nation's top honor in patient safety: the John M. Eisen- berg Award. In addition to his scholarship, Dr. Wachter is a prolific writer and edits the federal government's leading website on patient safety. His book, e Digital Doctor, made e New York Times' science best-seller list in 2015. Sam Robert Watson. Senior Vice President for Patient Safety and Quality and Executive Director of the Michigan Health & Hospital Association Keystone Center (Okemos). As the senior vice president for patient safety and quality at the Michigan Health & Hospital Association Keystone Center, Mr. Watson has led the center in collecting, analyzing and aggregating adverse event data to pioneer a cultural shi toward clinical improvement among Michigan hospitals. Mr. Watson, an adjunct faculty member for Lansing (Mich.) Community College, previously served as the director of quality improvement and pastoral care at Ingham Regional Medical Center in Lansing, now called McLaren Greater Lansing. Mr. Watson has delivered 100 conference speeches at hospitals, universities and con- ventions during the course of his career, and his work has been featured in 35 national and international publications. Stephen Weber, MD. Vice President of Clin- ical Effectiveness and CMO of University of Chicago Medicine. As vice president of clinical effectiveness and CMO of University of Chica- go Medicine, Dr. Weber specializes in antimi- crobial-resistant infections among vulnerable populations, especially geriatric patients. He is an active member of the university's infection prevention outreach team and offers month- ly educational web meetings for nurses in Chicago-area schools in an effort to standardize student care. Dr. Weber is the author of several studies on topics such as the prevention and management of healthcare-associated infec- tions, with an emphasis on infections caused by multidrug-resistant organisms. Eric Wei, MD. Vice President and Chief Quality Officer of NYC Health + Hospitals (New York City). An emergency physician by training, Dr. Wei completed his emergen- cy medicine residency and the healthcare administration scholars program at Ann Arbor-based University of Michigan in 2013. In the last year of his residency, Dr. Wei became a chief resident at the university, and later donned the titles of interim chief quality officer and associate medical director for quality, safety and risk at Los Angeles-based LAC+USC Medical Center. Today, Dr. Wei leads patient safety efforts at the nation's largest public health system, NYC Health + Hospitals, as vice president and chief quality officer. He is a fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Academy of Emergency Medicine. n