I am pleased to announce that Stephen Berry will transition from the Associate Vice Chair for Quality, Safety and Service to become Vice Chair for Quality, Safety and Service for the Department of Medicine. The elevation of his position, from associate to full vice chair, is due to his expanded role in response to the growing movement to increase the quality of healthcare, and to harmonize the stature of this position so it better aligns with many other departments in the School of Medicine.
During his three years as associate vice chair, Steve has led our efforts to improve the culture of safety, drive high value healthcare and foster an environment of patient- and family-centered care. With Maryland’s Pay-For-Performance program, which awards facilities that perform highly on certain quality indicators, and federal legislation such as the Affordable Care Act and MACRA, his role has become even more involved on the inpatient side as patients gain access to quality data regarding healthcare, enabling them to make more informed decisions when it comes to choosing providers and patient care facilities.
Steve’s expanded role is also due in part to the investment in a safety and quality culture by the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality and the Patient Safety and Quality Department of the Johns Hopkins Health System and their efforts to turn Hopkins into a high reliability organization with systems in place to eliminate preventable harm such as infections or medical errors.
With Steve’s demonstrated success as an associate vice chair, we have no doubt he will excel in his new expanded role as he tackles these new metrics and challenges. He will continue to work closely with Lee Daugherty Biddison, Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs, Carrie Herzke, Associate Vice Chair for Inpatient Operations, Kim Peairs, Associate Vice Chair for Ambulatory Operations, and the rest of our vice chair team to ensure the highest quality of patient care. With his help, we are poised to continue moving to become safer for our patients, physicians and everyone in between.
Please congratulate Dr. Berry on his new role, and thank the clinical vice chair team on their many contributions and accomplishments.
