The Patient and Health Care System: Perspectives on High-Quality Care

Pranavi V. Sreeramoju is passionate about improving healthcare delivery for all patients. She is Associate Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine – Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA. She serves as a physician leader who bridges clinical services and financial departments by championing financial efforts among clinicians and helping financial experts develop strategies that are meaningful from a clinical perspective. She has also served as healthcare epidemiologist and Chief of Infection Prevention at Parkland Health and Hospital System and for 3 years at UT Health in San Antonio. In these roles, she oversaw programs to prevent healthcare-associated infectionsin large complex academic healthcare systems and demonstrated improvement in patient outcomes while managing institutional risk, establishing training rotations and research infrastructures to support healthcare epidemiology. Her research interests include epidemiology of infections associated with healthcare, socioadaptive approaches including positive deviance, and healthcare finance. She received her medical degree from Jawaharlal Institute for Postgraduate Medical Education and Research in Puducherry, India, and received her fellowship training in infectious diseases at the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago. She obtained an MPH in epidemiology from Tulane University, New Orleans, and an MBA in healthcare organizational leadership from Naveen Jindal School of Management, UT Dallas. She has received multiple awards including the ‘Top 50 leaders in Patient Safety in 2015’ by Becker’s Hospital Review and she is the recipient of Judene Bartley Award for Public Policy and Advocacy in 2015 jointly awarded by the Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America and the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology. She has mentored several residents, fellows, and students during her career. Her work has been published in peer-reviewed medical journals. She loves blogging, traveling and reading.

Stephen Weber is the Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President for Clinical Excellence at the University of Chicago Medicine.  In this capacity he oversees clinical quality, patient safety and value-based care for the academic health system. He previously served as Chief Healthcare Epidemiologist and Medical Director of Infection Control at Chicago. A Professor of Medicine in the Section of Infectious Diseases and Global Health, he continues to see patients in both the inpatient and ambulatory settings.

Dr. Weber’s original research focus was the prevention and management of infection caused by multi-drug resistant organisms among hospitalized patients.  He later examined public policy and regulation related to infection control and served for a decade as the Chair of Public Policy and Government Affairs for the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.

In his current role, Dr. Weber has developed and supported programs focused on clinician engagement and high reliability practice with a goal to achieving perfect care.

Alexis Snyder is a Patient Family Advisor and Patient Engagement Specialist. As a parent of an adolescent with complex medical needs, Snyder has a unique perspective on healthcare delivery and the systems of care available to patients today, especially those with medical complexity. She is a strong advocate, advisor and facilitator who lends her talents to several regional and national organizations and advisory panels, to promote patient centered care and research, such as the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) and the Health Information and Technology Advisory Committee (HITAC) of the Office of the National Coordinator. Snyder provides a family voice to the planning and development, and implementation and evaluation of policies, programs and research that affect the quality of care and services delivered to patients and their families. Threw consultation and workshops Snyder provides best practice strategies for authentic engagement to assure the patient and family voice, as well as the voice of the greater community and the underserved, is always present and well represented. Snyder’s background includes work in a variety of health and human services related industries, such as community residences, long term care facilities and hospitals where she worked with diverse populations of patients and families. She and her daughter also work to spread awareness and understanding for invisible disabilities. Her blog series, Invisible Disabilities, has received global recognition. Additional publications include a co-authored article in JAMA Pediatrics: “What Parents of Children with Complex Medical Needs Want their Child’s Physicians to Understand.” Originally from Long Island, New York where she attend Hofstra University, Snyder now lives in Brookline, Massachusetts with her husband Michael, daughter Sara, and their two cats Naiya and Sebastian. When not fighting for patient rights, or working to better health systems and research, she enjoys cooking, gardening and weaving.

Dr. Kirk is the Chief Accreditation and Recognition Officer at the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education(ACGME) and Professor-emeritus of Internal Medicine at University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. She has served successively as Associate Dean for Medical Education, Director in the Office of Medical Education, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Medical Education, and Clinical Sciences Director at UT Southwestern.

Gary Reed obtained his M.D. at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in 1977 and finished his internal medicine training at the University of Texas Southwestern Affiliated Hospitals in 1980.  He then joined the Internal Medicine Faculty at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School where he has practiced his entire career and holds the titles of Distinguished Teaching Professor of Medicine and Associate Dean for Quality, Safety, and Outcomes Education. He holds a Master of Science Degree in Health Care Management Sciences from the University of Texas at Dallas and is also a Master of the American College of Physicians.  Through his career, he has won numerous teaching awards and lectures frequently on quality improvement methodology, patient safety, and high reliability theory.  His research and publication record includes studies involving high reliability, quality improvement methodology, and the use of systems engineering principles in health care delivery.  He has served on the Board of the Texas Chapter of the American College of Physicians and has created an advanced educational course on the use of quality improvement methodology in healthcare that has attracted national and international participants.

Dr. Hardy-Decuir is a recognized leader in healthcare quality improvement and hold leadership positions in numerous professional organizations. She is a frequent speaker on quality management, accreditation, and performance improvement at state and national conferences.

 Dr. Beverly Hardy-Decuir is a veteran healthcare professional with over 30 years of quality improvement, operational and senior leader experience. Her expertise as an executive nurse involves leading and directing healthcare quality and patient safety programs. 

 Prior to joining Parkland Health and Hospital System as the Vice President of Quality, Dr. Hardy-Decuir served as Section Chief for the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals Medicaid Quality Management, Statistics and Reporting division.

Medicaid adult and pediatric patient populations have been the focus of Dr. Hardy-Decuir nursing practice, research, and publications.  She has serviced in the critical care and emergency medicine clinical areas.

Senior Level Operational and Leadership Experience:

• Extensive executive experience in healthcare quality and patient safety.

• Expertise in strategies for delivery of evidence based care.

• Recognized as knowledgeable quality professional.

• Experience in improving efficiency in hospital operations.

• Disaster recovery strategies.

• Leader in helping achieve better hospital quality.

Dr. Hardy-Decuir holds a baccalaureate and master’s degree of science in nursing from the University of South Alabama, and a Doctor of Nursing Practice from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. She is a Board Certified Fellow with the American College of Healthcare Executives. She holds membership in numerous professional organizations including American Nurses Association, Sigma Theta Tau International, National Association of Healthcare Quality Professionals, and American Association of Healthcare Accreditation Professionals.  She currently serves as a mentor with the American College of Healthcare Executives, Texas Value Based Purchasing Advisory Board member, the Women Healthcare Executive Network board member, and serves as a Quality Coach for the American Society of Clinical Oncology.