For the 12th year in a row, United Hospital Fund and Greater New York Hospital Association have launched a new class of Clinical Quality Fellows, 30 mid-career physicians and nurses who are embarking on an intensive 15-month program focused on improving quality and patient safety at their facilities.
The Clinical Quality Fellowship Program (CQFP) was started in 2009 to address an urgent need for medical professionals to gain the skills to become quality improvement and patient safety leaders at their facilities.
The 2020-2021 class of CQFP Fellows, representing 23 New York-area health care facilities, will attend two off-site retreats as well as monthly webinars, dinner meetings, and a half-day learning session. Central to their experience—and a key benefit of the program—will be a capstone quality improvement initiative at each Fellow’s home organization, planned and executed with the guidance of a faculty mentor.
The Fellows attended their first two-day retreat in Palisades, NY, on January 23-24, where they had the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with each other and the program’s faculty, as well as several past Fellows. The retreat agenda covered such aspects of quality improvement as the use of data, teamwork, root cause analysis, managing change, and accountability for quality. It was directed by Rohit Bhalla, MD, MPH, senior vice president of clinical affairs & quality and chief clinical & quality officer at Stamford Hospital.
Once they complete their program, the Fellows will bring their new knowledge, skills, and strategies back to their health care organizations, where they will be prepared to take on leadership roles and act as agents of change.
“The first retreat is always a productive and valuable experience as the Fellows start sharing and building on their ideas for improving quality and patient safety,” said Joan Guzik, director of Quality Improvement for UHF’s Quality Institute. “We had 60 applicants this year, all high-quality, demonstrating that CQFP has developed a reputation for providing an excellent learning experience for emerging quality leaders.”
This year’s Fellows are:
• Oluyemisi Ariyibi, MD, MPH, CUNY Sophie-David School of Medicine and SBH Health System
• William Bodeker, MS, FNP-BC, CEN, CCRN, Mount Sinai Health System
• Kimberly Cartmill, MD, NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi
• Kelly Sessler, MPH, RN, CCRN-K, CLNC, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital
• Jodi Galesi, DNP, RN, APN-C, NE-BC, Hackensack University Medical Center
• Surafel Tsega, MD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Mount Sinai Hospital
• Omar Fattal, MD, MPH, NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue
• Lee Donner, MD, NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln
• Santiago Lopez, MD, North Shore University Hospital and Hofstra School of Medicine
• Karyn Singer, MD, MPH, NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull
• Donato Pacione, MD, NYU Langone Medical Center
• Jennifer Rottas, MBA, BSN, RN-C, Plainview and Syosset Hospitals (Northwell Health System)
• Poroshat Shekarloo, MD, Maimonides Medical Center
• Janett Pike, MPA, BSN, RN, CIC, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital
• Jinel Scott, MD, MBA, NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County Hospital Center and SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University
• Julie Wan, MS, RN, NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn
• Danielle Wheelwright, RN, MN, Mount Sinai Health System
• Bernadette Springer, MS, FNP-BC, RN, Mount Sinai Queens
• Allison Driansky, MD, Northwell Cohen’s Children Medical Center
• Jana Romm, MD, NYC Health + Hospitals/North Central Bronx
• Laura Butler, MSN, RN, Mount Sinai Hospital
• Marwa Moussa, MD, NYU Langone Brooklyn
• Julissa Cardona, MSN, RN, NYC Health + Hospitals/Coler
• Anjna Ganatra, MD, NYC Health + Hospitals/Metropolitan Hospital
• Abdo Kabarriti, MD, NYC Health + Hospitals/Coney Island
• Anya Weerasinghe, MD, NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem
• Colleen Vessell, MD, MPH, NYC Health + Hospitals/Correctional Health Services
• Svetlana Chernyavsky, DO, Mount Sinai Beth Israel
• David Rhee, MD, MS, NYU Langone Brooklyn
• Jeremy Rose, MD, MPH, FRCP, Mount Sinai Beth Israel
