PSQH: The Podcast Episode 148 – Improving Care for Patients with Parkinson’s Disease
On episode 148 of PSQH: The Podcast, Dr. Peter Pronovost, Chief Quality and Transformation Officer at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center and Dr. Hooman Azmi of Hackensack-Meridian Health talk about improving care for patients with Parkinson’s disease.
Peter Pronovost, MD, PhD, is a world-renowned patient safety champion, innovator, critical care physician, a prolific researcher (publishing over 800 peer review publications), entrepreneur (founding a healthcare start-up that was acquired), and a global thought leader, informing U.S. and global health policy. His scientific work leveraging checklists to reduce catheter-related bloodstream infections has saved thousands of lives and earned him high-profile accolades, including being named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine, receiving a coveted MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” in 2008.
Dr. Pronovost currently serves as the Chief Quality & Clinical Transformation Officer for University Hospitals, a comprehensive health system with a national reputation for providing world class healthcare, research and education. Headquartered in Cleveland, University Hospitals has annual revenues of $4.4 billion, 20 hospitals, more than 50 health centers and outpatient facilities, and over 200 physician offices located throughout 16 counties.
As Chief Quality & Clinical Transformation Officer, Dr. Pronovost is charged with fostering ideation and implementation for new protocols to eliminate defects in value and thereby enhance quality of care; developing new frameworks for population health management for UH’s more than one million patients; and managing the UH Accountable Care Network – one of the nation’s largest – comprising more than 581,000 members. Dr. Pronovost also serves as a Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and School of Nursing.
Previously, Dr. Pronovost served as the Senior Vice President for Patient Safety and Quality at Johns Hopkins Medicine as well as the founder and director of the Johns Hopkins Medicine Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality. In this role, he worked to eliminate all harms in one health system following on his success in eliminating one harm in most health systems across the U.S. Dr. Pronovost also served as the Senior Vice President for Clinical Strategy and the Chief Medical officer for UnitedHealthcare.
Hooman Azmi, MD, FAANS, FCNS, is the Director of the Division of Functional and Restorative Neurosurgery at Hackensack University Medical Center and associate professor of Neurosurgery at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine. His goal has been to develop a program that delivers a very comprehensive approach to the care of patients with Parkinson’s disease. From promoting engagement in health and wellness, to offering the most current medication therapies, to making available surgical options such as Deep Brain Stimulation and beyond, the program strives to ensure the best quality of life possible for each and every patient.
Recognizing the particular vulnerability of patients with Parkinson’s disease, Dr. Azmi has spent the last decade helping to develop innovative hospital wide protocols and programs to improve the care of patients with Parkinson’s disease who have been admitted to the hospital. He leads a team at HUMC whose efforts have culminated in HUMC becoming the first hospital in the nation to receive disease specific certification in Parkinson’s disease from the Joint Commission for accreditation of Hospitals in June of 2018.
Dr. Azmi has authored and co-authored several articles in scientific journals and has been an invited speaker nationally and internationally. His co-authored book entitled “Parkinson’s Disease for the Hospitalist” was released in 2018.
Listen to the episode below: