Resource Library-Quality Leaders Take the Helm

Video Transcription

Video Summary

Stephanie Mercado, CEO of the National Association for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ/NACU), moderates a panel with three health system CEOs—Carol Gomes (Stony Brook University Hospital), Malik Joshi (Meritus Health), and Erika Steed (MetroHealth System)—focused on leading through quality, safety, and equity.<br /><br />Each leader describes their organization and how quality is structured: Stony Brook uses a centralized model with strong analytics; Meritus treats quality as everyone’s role, supported by a quality department, improvement rounds, and leadership training; MetroHealth embeds continuous improvement, safety, and experience across the enterprise with shared accountability.<br /><br />In discussing leadership journeys, panelists emphasize how quality skills (data use, Lean/Six Sigma, informatics, negotiation, change management) shaped their rise to CEO roles and how agility plus discipline sustain improvement.<br /><br />On workforce challenges, they connect burnout and retention to system problems that quality methods can fix. Examples include executive rounding (Stony Brook leaders in “red sneakers”), engagement surveys, respite resources, onboarding improvements, pipeline partnerships, and using innovation/virtual workflows to reduce frontline burden.<br /><br />On equity, they stress it is inseparable from quality. Actions include collecting and stratifying outcomes by demographics, addressing social determinants (transportation/access), community advisory structures, transparency via public reporting, and improving leadership diversity.

Asset Caption

Speakers: Airica Steed, Ed.D, MBA, RN, CSSMBB, FACHE, IASSC, Carol Gomes, MS, CPHQ, FACHE, Maulik Joshi, DrPH, Stephanie Mercado, CAE, CPHQ

Healthcare quality professionals are uniquely suited to be leaders. They regard quality as more than compliance; it is the north star to lead an organization. They persevere, display resilience and lead healthcare teams to do the same to move the needle on quality. When quality leaders take the top seat, they bring sensibilities for quality, safety, equity and value with them. Hear from quality leaders who are now Chief Executive Officers about how they led with quality to make it to the c-suite. Leave this session with actionable next steps to prioritize and position quality to do the same in your organization.

Meta Tag

Competency Tag QLI1

Competency Tag Description Direct the quality and safety infrastructure to achieve organizational objectives.

Domain Tag Quality Leadership and Integration

Keywords

healthcare quality leadership

patient safety and equity

health system CEOs panel

National Association for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ)

continuous improvement (Lean Six Sigma)

workforce burnout and retention

data analytics and outcomes stratification

social determinants of health and community engagement