Quality and Patient Safety at MedStar Health

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Accreditation by The Joint Commission is a piece of information to use in selecting a hospital. 

The Joint Commission is an independent non-profit organization that sets standards by which healthcare organizations in the United States demonstrate care quality. Their accreditation of a hospital or healthcare facility is a nationwide seal of approval that indicates that a hospital meets high performance standards. MedStar Health is accredited by The Joint Commission.

To view The Joint Commission's quality report for MedStar Health hospitals, visit QualityCheck.org

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has defined a limited set of clinical care measures to monitor how well hospitals are performing. Each of these indicators are supported by a body of evidence and is recommended for most patients. However, please consult with your physician to discuss if specific treatment is appropriate for you. 

CMS reports the national, state, and hospital-level results for these care measures. The most current information is available to the public on Care Compare, a federal government website managed by the CMS. Please note that the procedure-specific data represents care provided to inpatient Medicare beneficiaries only.

There you will find care measure categories, including those related to the following conditions:

Visit the CMS website

The Maryland Health Care Commission (MHCC) is an independent state regulatory agency that publishes data on the quality and costs of healthcare in Maryland so that Maryland residents can find and compare hospitals and services. On their website, patients can review consumer ratings, compare healthcare prices, and browse health topics in order to become informed decision-makers when it comes to their care.

Visit the MHCC website

Senior Vice President and Chief Quality and Safety Officer at MedStar Health
Professor of Emergency Medicine, Georgetown University
Founding Director Emeritus, National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare

Dr. Fairbanks is senior vice president and chief quality and safety officer at MedStar Health, professor of emergency medicine at Georgetown University, and founding director emeritus of MedStar Health’s National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare. He practices emergency medicine at MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC.

Dr. Fairbanks has authored more than 200 publications, edited a book on healthcare safety and human factors engineering, and received research funding from the National Institutes of Health, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and others. He has served in safety advisory roles for several national organizations and for the United States, British, Spanish, and Australian governments.

A former paramedic, EMS Medical Director, general aviation pilot, and safety engineering researcher, Professor Fairbanks earned a thesis-based master’s degree in industrial systems engineering with a human factors/safety engineering focus at Virginia Tech, completed Medical School at VCU’s Medical College of Virginia, and residency training in emergency medicine at the University of Rochester where he was chief resident. He completed the Wharton School’s Physician Leadership certificate and the National Patient Safety Foundation’s HRET Patient Safety Leadership Fellowship.

Dr. Fairbanks is board certified in emergency medicine, certified professional in-patient safety, and was elected as a Fellow in the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society in 2022. He has been listed multiple times in Becker’s Hospital Review as a Top Expert Leading the Field of Patient Safety, is a recognized national and international speaker and influencer, and was recently recognized with the 2021 Robert L. Wears Patient Safety Leadership Award.

Vice President, Patient Safety & Infection Prevention, MedStar Health

Dr. Kellogg is Vice President, Patient Safety & Infection Prevention for MedStar Health, and assistant professor at Georgetown University School of Medicine. She leads patient safety across the MedStar Health enterprise and oversees systemwide infection prevention operations, which included operational leadership of the COVID-19 infection prevention response. She is a board-certified attending emergency physician, and an attending emergency physician at the MedStar Washington Hospital Center ED in Washington DC.

Dr. Kellogg’s background includes training in systems engineering, human factors, and patient safety. Prior to her current position, she served in several MedStar Health leadership roles including associate medical director, MedStar Health National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare, assistant vice president ambulatory quality and safety, and assistant vice president safety. Her work on patient safety, emergency care, and systems-based risk mitigation has been funded by AHRQ and published in peer-reviewed journals.

Dr. Kellogg received her medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry which included a human factors/system safety engineering research year. She completed residency in emergency medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and a Master of public health from Dartmouth College. Dr. Kellogg is a Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians, and a Certified Professional in Patient Safety.

Medical Director, Infection Prevention, MedStar Quality and Safety
Section Director, Infectious Diseases, MedStar Washington Hospital Center
Clinical Professor of Medicine, Georgetown University
Professor of Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences

Dr. Wortmann attended Princeton University on a 4-year ROTC scholarship and completed his medical school training at the Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University.  He then completed his Internal Medicine residency and Infectious Diseases fellowship training at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.  Dr. Wortmann’s assignments during his 23-year military career included tours in Germany, Ft. Eustis (VA), Walter Reed, Afghanistan and Iraq, and he served as the Program Director for the Infectious Diseases fellowship at Walter Reed and the Section Chief of Infectious Diseases.  Since coming to MedStar in 2012 he served as the Program Director for the Infectious Diseases fellowship and remains the Section Director of Infectious Diseases at MedStar Washington Hospital Center and the Medical Director, Infection Prevention, MedStar Quality and Safety.  Dr. Wortmann has authored >200 articles, abstracts and book chapters, received the ‘Employee of the Year’ award from the Healthcare Council in 2020, and has been named to the list ‘top doctors’ in Maryland, northern Virginia (twice) and Washington, DC (5 times).  

Assistant Vice President of Advanced Clinical Data Science and Insights at MedStar Health

Tom White, MD is Assistant Vice President of Advanced Clinical Data Science and Insights, where his efforts are currently focused on assisting the COVID-19 Data Task Force as well as on MedStar Health’s ongoing quality and safety critical data needs.

Dr. White’s career focus has been on translational informatics, reducing the time needed to generate new evidence-based practices and get them deployed at the bedside and into the community—with a special focus on improving quality, safety, and access for vulnerable populations. Before joining MedStar Health, Dr. White served as Vice President of Clinical Informatics and Data Strategy at Capital District Physician’s Health Plan (CDPHP) in Albany, New York, where he established and led their Data Science team, and drove over $50M in improvements in quality, safety, cost effectiveness, clinical coding accuracy, and productivity. He architected their analytic and pharmacy data warehouses, implemented corporate-wide analytic portfolio management, led their Data Governance program, established the Data Visualization Center of Excellence, created their 3-year Data Strategy, and co-led their Big Data initiative.

Prior to CDPHP, Dr. White spent a decade at the NY Office of Mental Health (OMH), where he created the PSYCKES Clinical Decision Support + Population Health management system and won national awards for quickly driving compliance with evidenced-based prescribing for psychiatric diseases while saving tens of millions in pharmacy costs. Before OMH, he created the Dialogix platform for easily computerizing complex, multi-lingual, assessment and diagnostic instruments at Columbia University and supported over $20M in NIH-funded epidemiologic research.

Dr. White attended Cornell School of Medicine where he conducted research and built the analytic tools used by Memorial Sloan Kettering’s pre-neurosurgical planning team. He also completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia University in Medical Informatics.

Vice President, Hospital Quality Performance at MedStar Health
Board-certified Cardiologist

Dr. Patrick is a board-certified cardiologist who leads coordinated efforts between MedStar Health’s 10 hospitals to ensure our patients receive the highest quality care. Prior to his current role, Dr. Patrick led quality and safety efforts for the MedStar Heart and Vascular Institute (MHVI) and was Director of General Inpatient Cardiology Services. MHVI is now recognized by CMS, US News & World Report, and the American College of Cardiology for exceptionally high quality care, and Dr. Patrick’s leadership helped to advance this quality work and to secure these national recognitions.

Dr. Patrick’s clinical focus is echocardiography and critical care cardiology. He is an expert in designing health delivery systems that provide the highest quality, most efficient, and safest care possible for patients. He has a particular interest in applying the Theory of Constraints and Statistical Process Control to the management of clinical care.

Dr. Patrick attended medical school at Georgetown University School of Medicine. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and his fellowship in cardiology at the MedStar Washington Hospital Center. More recently, Dr Patrick participated in MedStar Health’s Physician Leadership Development Program through the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business.

Awards and recognition

Nurse-Physician Collaboration Award, MedStar Washington Hospital Center, 2017

James A. Curtis Award “For the Most Outstanding Clinical Educator”, MedStar Washington Hospital Center Department of Internal Medicine, June 2016

Division of Cardiology Innovation Award, MedStar Washington Hospital Center, 2015

Senior Director of Hospital Quality Programs and Clinical Quality

Mr. Calabria is the Senior Director of Hospital Quality Programs and Clinical Quality, Instructor for Georgetown University, Executive Master's in Clinical Quality, Safety & Leadership, is currently a board member and president elect for the Maryland Association for Healthcare Quality, and a faculty member of the MedStar Institute for Quality & Safety.

He has over 15 years of experience in healthcare quality and process improvement. He began his career in Quality and Data Analytics at the University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center followed by the MedStar Franklin Square Medical Center, prior to advancing to his current position with the MedStar Health Quality & Safety Team. Throughout his career, Mr. Calabria has facilitated and led clinical quality improvement initiatives and serves as a subject matter expert on CMS and HSCRC Pay for Performance Programs.

Prior to his career in Quality and Data Analytics, he worked directly with psychiatric patients at the Sheppard Pratt Hospital, followed by working in a clinical research setting for Psychiatric Services at the Baltimore VA Medical Center.

Mr. Calabria holds a BS is Psychology and a MA in Experimental Psychology. He is a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality and a Certified Lean/Six Sigma Black Belt.

Senior Director for High Reliability and Safety 

Laura Lee is MedStar Health’s Senior Director for High Reliability and Patient Safety. In this role, Laura is integral to developing and operationalizing MedStar Health’s high reliability and patient safety strategic initiatives. Laura is committed to bringing the principles of high reliability to life through practical applications at the front-line of care delivery and healthcare operations and to advancing MedStar Health as a leader in fostering psychological safety and just culture and designing proactive safety systems that anticipate and prevent hazards and unsafe conditions.  Prior to joining the MedStar Health team, Laura was the Director of the Office of Patient Safety and Clinical Quality at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center (NIH CC).  Laura holds a Master of Science in Patient Safety Leadership from the College of Medicine at the University of Illinois-Chicago, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the Catholic University of America, and a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from Gettysburg College.

Sr. Director, Clinical Data & Analytics

Karol Wicker joined MedStar in July 2014 and is Senior Director, Clinical Data & Analytics, responsible for the overall direction and management of the data & analytics team, including strategic planning and tactical and operational processes of the unit. She oversees a team responsible for analytic work aimed at improving clinical outcomes across the enterprise. The functions include but are not limited to clinical data management, analysis and reporting for both acute and non-acute entities across MedStar Health. Prior to joining MedStar, Karol held various roles at the Maryland Hospital Association and its Center for Performance Sciences during her 17-year tenure, providing strategic direction, tactical oversight, management, design, and implementation of clinical performance measurement products with an emphasis on quality, productivity, and consistency. She was responsible for day-to-day resource allocation, and architecting and managing the processing, interpretation, and presentation of clinical data for hospital improvement initiatives and research projects. In addition to her Master of Health Science in International Health and Population Policy from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Karol holds a Bachelor’s in Economics and is Six Sigma Green Belt certified.