If you would like to schedule a speaking engagement, please contact:
Neil S. Fleming, PhD, CQE
Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
STEEEP™ Global Institute
The Health Care Quality Practice of the Baylor Health Care System
8080 North Central Expressway, Suite 900, LB 77
Dallas, TX 75206
Phone: (214) 265-3601
Fax: (214) 265-3782
Neil.Fleming@STEEEPGlobalInstitute.com
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
Joel T. Allison, FACHE
President and Chief Executive Officer
Baylor Health Care System
Joel Allison is president and chief executive officer of Baylor Health Care System (BHCS). In this role, his primary responsibility is to help Baylor attain its vision “to be trusted as the best place to give and receive safe, compassionate, quality health care.”
To do so, Mr. Allison continues developing BHCS as a patient-focused health care delivery system and clinical enterprise that offers prevention and wellness, physician, outpatient, acute hospital, and other services that are geographically dispersed yet efficient and fully coordinated. He maintains a focus on providing quality, safe patient care that can be measured and reported. He also places a renewed focus on medical education and health care research and continues to collaborate with physicians in the development of BHCS.
Mr. Allison’s career includes more than three decades in health care management. He joined BHCS in 1993, and served as senior executive vice president and chief operating officer before being promoted to president and CEO in 2000.
Mr. Allison is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives. Nationally, he serves on the Healthcare Leadership Council, The Joint Commission Board of Commissioners, and the United Surgical Partners International Board. In addition, he serves on numerous state and local boards, including Texas Association of Voluntary Hospitals, Healthcare Coalition of Texas, Dallas Citizens Council, Dallas Education Foundation, and the Denison Forum on Truth and Culture.
Mr. Allison received a bachelor’s degree in journalism and religion at Baylor University in 1970 and attended Trinity University's health care administration program from which he earned a master's degree in 1973. He is also a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School and in 2004 he received an Honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from Dallas Baptist University.
Presentation Topics
- Leadership Alignment for Health Care Quality Improvement
- Commitment to STEEEP Care Across the Health Care Organization
David J. Ballard, MD, MSPH, PhD, FACP
Senior Vice President
Chief Quality Officer
Baylor Health Care System
As Chief Quality Officer and Executive Director of the BHCS Institute for Health Care Research and Improvement, as well as president of the STEEEP Global Institute, Dr. Ballard is responsible for designing, implementing, and evaluating clinical quality improvement initiatives across BHCS which has received many awards for its health care improvement accomplishments under David’s leadership, including the 2007 Leapfrog Patient-Centered Care Award, the 2008 National Quality Healthcare Award of the National Quality Forum and the 2010 Medical Group Preeminence Award of the American Medical Group Association.
Prior to joining BHCS in 1999, David held progressive academic appointments as Assistant and then Associate Professor at the Mayo Medical School, as Associate Professor with tenure at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and as Professor of Medicine with tenure in the Emory University School of Medicine and Professor of Epidemiology in The Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University. David’s leadership roles have included service as founding Head of the Mayo Section of Health Services Evaluation and as Senior Associate Consultant and then Consultant in the Department of Health Science Research (1986-91), founding President, Kerr L. White Institute for Health Services Research (1991-9), President (2001-3) of the International Society for Quality in Health Care and Chair of AHRQ’s Health Care Quality and Effectiveness Research study section (2006 -10). He is Chair-Elect of AHRQ’s Centers for Education and Research on Therapeutics Steering Committee for 2011 and 2012, and full Chair for 2013 and 2014.
He serves on several editorial boards, including Health Services Research, the newly launched Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research and the Mayo Clinic Proceedings (for which he serves as Health Policy Section Editor). He has published 150+ PubMed listed manuscripts and is a 1995 recipient of the AcademyHealth New Investigator Award, given annually to the outstanding health services research scholar in the United States less than 40 years of age. He is a member of the UNC School of Public Health Foundation Board and the Board of Trustees of The Lawrenceville School and past member of the Board of Trustees of the Texas Hospital Association. David received in 2008 the Distinguished Service Award of the UNC School of Medicine.
A native of Lexington, Kentucky, David graduated with Academic Distinction from The Lawrenceville School where he was selected as its outstanding senior by the faculty (Brainard Award) and by his classmates (Yale Aurelian Award) and was chosen by the National Football Foundation’s Delaware Valley Chapter as its outstanding Scholar-Athlete. A board-certified internist, he trained at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine following completion of degrees in chemistry, economics, epidemiology and medicine at the University of North Carolina where he was a Morehead Scholar, North Carolina Fellow and junior year Phi Beta Kappa inductee.
Presentation Topics
- Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of Clinical Quality Initiatives
- Health Care Quality and Patient Safety Improvement Across the Health Care Organization
Gary Brock
Executive Vice President
Chief Operating Officer
Baylor Health Care System
Gary Brock is executive vice president and chief operating officer for Baylor Health Care System. He provides operational oversight of all of the Baylor Medical Centers and HealthTexas Provider Network, as well as for corporate services including nursing, strategic planning and business development, information services, managed care, health and wellness, clinical services departments, and consumer affairs including marketing and public relations. He also is co-leader of BHCS’s clinical transformation initiative and Best Care efforts, which are organized to optimize clinical operations to achieve significant quality, operational, and financial improvements supported by information technology.
Mr. Brock, since beginning his distinguished career at Baylor over 26 years ago, has served in a number of leadership roles, including executive director at Baylor Medical Center at Garland, senior vice president of managed care and physician network development for the System, and executive vice president for the System.
Mr. Brock currently serves as a trustee on the Texas Hospital Association board and on the advisory board of the Healthcare Coalition of Texas.
Mr. Brock is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master of Public Health Degree from the University of Oklahoma.
Presentation Topics
- Operational Oversight of Health Care Quality Improvement Processes
- Clinical Transformation and Best Care to Improve Health Care Quality
Paul Convery, MD, MMM
Senior Vice President
Chief Medical Officer
Baylor Health Care System
Dr. Paul Convery is Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for the Baylor Health Care System. His leadership experience includes health care quality improvement, patient safety, health equity, clinical informatics, research, medical education, physician leadership development, managed care, the organized medical staff, and medical group operations. Under his direction, BHCS has been recognized with several important quality awards, including the 2008 National Quality Forum National Quality Healthcare Award and the 2007 Leapfrog Patient-Centered Care Award.
Dr. Convery, who joined BHCS in February 2006, has over 20 years of medical management and health care leadership experience across multiple health care organizations. From 1999 to 2006, he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer for SSM Health Care in St. Louis, Missouri. Under his leadership, SSM became in 2002 the first health care organization to win the distinguished National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Dr. Convery was also Chairman of the St. Louis Medical Group and President/Medical Director of Southwest Medical Center, both large multispecialty groups in St. Louis. In addition to his leadership experience, Dr. Convery is a Board-Certified Internist who practiced Internal Medicine for over twenty years.
Dr. Convery has served as the Chair of the Provider Council and on the Leadership Network of the National Quality Forum. He has also served on the Board of Directors of the Institute for Clinical Quality and Value, and on the Education and Research Foundation Board of the Dallas – Fort Worth Hospital Council. In addition, Dr. Convery has served on multiple hospital boards and health system boards, as well as other nonprofit boards. An international speaker on health care quality improvement and physician leadership development, Dr. Convery developed the curriculum Baylor Advanced Physician Leadership in collaboration with the Southern Methodist University Cox School of Business. He has appeared on Modern Healthcare’s list of the 50 Most Influential Physician Executives five times and co-authored the book chapter “Training Physician and Nursing Leaders for Performance Improvement” in the 2012 Joint Commission book “From Front Office to Front Line.”
Dr. Convery graduated from medical school at the University of Illinois; is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and a Fellow of the American College of Physician Executives; and received a Masters of Medical Management from Tulane University.
Presentation Topics
- Strategies and Processes for Health Care Quality Improvement Across the Health Care Organization
- Physician Leadership, Alignment, and Development Across the Health Care Organization
Carl E. Couch, MD, MMM, FAAFP
President
Baylor Quality Alliance
Dr. Couch serves as the President of Baylor Quality Alliance, a clinically integrated organization of employed physicians, independent physicians, hospitals, and other providers of care whose mission is to improve quality and reduce the overall cost of care for the patients and communities served by BHCS.
Before coming to his current role, Dr. Couch served as Vice President of Health Care Improvement of BHCS from 2010 to 2011 and was the founding director and 13-year Chairman of the Board of HealthTexas Provider Network. He was also the founder of Family Medical Center at Garland, Texas and served as an active family physician for 39 years. Additionally, Dr. Couch was founder and executive director of ABC Baylor; Co-Chairman of the BHCS Best Care Committee; and Director of the Physician Champions.
Dr. Couch's interests as a physician leader include physician group dynamics, group practice organization and function, physician compensation, quality improvement, and medical informatics. He has also done extensive work in redesigning the clinical delivery model to reduce “hassles,” improve quality, and work with the Dallas-Fort Worth community of payers, providers, and purchasers to simplify the complexity of care delivery.
Dr. Couch is a board-certified family physician and an AOA graduate of the University of Florida Medical School. He completed his clinical training at Parkland in Dallas and holds a Masters in Medical Management from Tulane University in New Orleans.
Presentation Topics
- Clinical Integration of Physicians and Hospitals for Health Care Quality Improvement
- Physician Leadership and Best Care Initiatives
- Essentials for achieving organizational success in quality improvement
- Physician group practice organization and management
Neil Fleming, PhD, CQE
Vice President
Chief Operating Officer
STEEEP™ Global Institute
Dr. Fleming is Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the STEEEP™ Global Institute, which leverages Baylor Health Care System’s success in health care quality improvement to assist other health care organizations in improving quality and reducing costs. Recently, Dr. Fleming served as the BHCS Vice President for Health Care Research for 7 years, evaluating clinical and financial outcomes of BHCS initiatives with a major interest in Health Information Technology. He received federal funding from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality as a principal investigator for this research.
Before joining Baylor Health Care System, Dr. Fleming was a consultant for over 20 years, with clients such as the Office of Prepaid/Managed Care where he reviewed HMOs for federal qualification and compliance from financial (including actuarial) and marketing perspectives. Dr. Fleming served for 4 years as a Statistician at the CDC National Center for Health Statistics and for 2 years as a Medical Consultant with EDS on the Texas Medicaid Program. A senior member of the American Society for Quality, Dr. Fleming has been a Certified Quality Engineer for 20 years.
Extensively published as a research leader and collaborator, Dr. Fleming’s articles have appeared in Health Affairs, Annals of Internal Medicine, Medical Care, International Journal for Quality in Health Care, and the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety. Dr. Fleming recently led the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality-funded study Impact of Health Information Technology on Primary Care Workflow and Financial Measures. The study identified "hidden" costs, i.e. resources and staff time, that provider practices and health care organizations must consider when planning for electronic health record implementation. The study results were published in Health Affairs.
Dr. Fleming received his PhD from Vanderbilt University under a Fellowship of the DHHS National Center for Health Services Research; and his BS in Mathematics from Bucknell University.
Presentation Topics
- The Financial Implications of Clinical Excellence and Value in Health Care
- Understanding the Visible and Hidden Costs in Health Information Technology
Cliff T. Fullerton, MD
Vice President, Chronic Disease Institute
Baylor Health Care System
Dr. Fullerton serves as Vice President of the Chronic Disease Institute at BHCS. During his tenure at BHCS, he has been extensively involved with HealthTexas Provider Network, where he has served as Chair of the Quality Committee, as well as Dallas County Medical Society and Family Medical Center at Garland/North Garland, where he serves as President. Dr. Fullerton has expertise in a variety of subjects, including health care quality improvement, chronic disease management, electronic health record implementation, and transitions in care.
Dr. Fullerton leads the Patient-Centered Medical Home initiative at HealthTexas. The concept is defined by the American College of Physicians as a team-based model of care led by a personal physician who provides continuous and coordinated care throughout a patient's lifetime to maximize health outcomes.
Dr. Fullerton has served on the Board of HealthTexas Provider Network since 1995. He was a Board Member of the Texas Academy of Family Physicians Foundation from 1997-2002. Currently, he is a Board member of Predisan USA (medical missions to Olancho, Honduras, which has a full-time staff in Honduras of 62 people including health educators, administrative staff, nurses, and physicians). He is affiliated with American Academy of Family Practice, Texas Academy of Family Practice, and the Leadership Institute. He serves as the physician advisor for the Garland Independent School District and is an Adjunct Assistant Clinical Professor for University of Texas School of Nursing.
Dr. Fullerton earned his MD at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, his internship at Scott and White Hospital, and his residency at Family Practice Residency, University of Oklahoma Health Science Center in Oklahoma City.
Presentation Topics
- Health Information Technology and Chronic Disease Management
- Improving Transitions in Care for Patients With Chronic Disease
Don Kennerly, MD. PhD
Vice President of Patient Safety
Chief Patient Safety Officer
Baylor Health Care System
Dr. Don Kennerly serves as Vice President of Patient Safety and Chief Patient Safety Officer for 16 Baylor Health Care System hospitals and 150+ HealthTexas Provider Network ambulatory care facilities. In these roles, he oversees the BHCS effort to develop systematic, information-driven interventions intended to move the organization toward higher reliability. Dr. Kennerly also serves as the executive sponsor for BHCS’s formal goal to reduce risk-adjusted inpatient mortality, which has dropped by 39% in five years. Dr. Kennerly served as principal or co-investigator associated with: the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) IDSRN/ACTION-sponsored work on development of Targeted Injury Detection Systems, an AHRQ-funded project related to the use of trigger tools in ambulatory primary care, and in the refinement of trigger tools to determine the rates of adverse events associated with inpatient care. His expertise related to development and deployment of inpatient focused trigger tools to detect, quantify, and characterize adverse events led to consultative support of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Office of Inspector General in their congressionally mandated study of patient injury for Medicare beneficiaries.
Prior to joining BHCS, Dr. Kennerly was a tenured full-time faculty member at UT Southwestern Medical School where he did work related to asthma disease management, basic science research, provided direct care to patients with asthma, and lectured widely related to asthma management.
Dr. Kennerly has served as a founding Trustee for two charitable nonprofit organizations supporting patients with asthma and has served as chair of the Executive Committee of the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council Foundation, one of the nationally prominent regional data-sharing collaboratives.
Dr. Kennerly obtained his undergraduate training at Harvard College and both MD and PhD degrees at Washington University School of Medicine.
Presentation Topics
- Measurement Strategies to Evaluate Performance in Patient Safety
- Planning and Implementing Information-Driven Patient Safety Interventions
- Engaging Executive and Clinical Leaders in Patient Safety in a Large Complex Provider Organization
Rosemary Luquire, RN, PhD, NEA-BC, FAAN
Senior Vice President
Chief Nursing Officer
Baylor Health Care System
Dr. Luquire is Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer for Baylor Health Care System. Dr. Luquire joined BHCS as senior vice president and corporate chief nursing officer in January 2007 and is responsible for overseeing both strategic and operational issues that impact nursing practice and patient care across 16 facilities.
Dr. Luquire came to Baylor from St. Luke’s Episcopal Health System in Houston, where she served as senior vice president, chief nursing officer, and chief quality officer and was responsible for overseeing the health care system’s professional nursing practice and the quality improvement program. In her 20 years at St. Luke’s, Dr. Luquire earned a reputation for research-based practice, minimal staff turnover, and an unfailing commitment to cost-effective operations and patient care.
Dr. Luquire holds joint faculty appointments at Baylor University’s Louise Herrington School of Nursing, Texas Women’s University, and University of Texas. She is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and serves as Vice President of the Board of Managers for the American Nurses Credentialing Center as well as several hospital boards, and is a member of the American Nurses Association, American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, and the national and local chapters of the American College of Healthcare Executives. Dr. Luquire served as a Magnet Commissioner from 2002 – 2010 and helped to implement standards by which nursing is evaluated internationally.
A graduate of Emory University, Dr. Luquire earned her PhD from Texas Woman’s University and her master’s degree in nursing from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
Presentation Topics
- Nursing Leadership in Health Care Quality Improvement
- Commitment to STEEEP Care Across the Health Care Organization
Andrew L. Masica, MD, MSc
Vice President of Clinical Innovation
Baylor Health Care System
Dr. Masica serves as the Baylor Health Care System Vice President for Clinical Innovation. In addition, he is a practicing internal medicine physician, leads the clinical decision support resource for BHCS, and has an operational role focused on implementation of evidence-based practices into BHCS clinical initiatives (including a leadership position on the BHCS Sepsis Task Force).
Dr. Masica is formally trained in conducting patient-oriented research and has experience in multi-site, collaborative research networks. He is the principal investigator for two projects funded by Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), including a comparative effectiveness project investigating diabetes and chronic kidney disease outcomes that centers on use of electronic medical records. One of his most recent publications focused on the dual role of integrated health care delivery systems as both producers and consumers of comparative effectiveness research.
In addition to his positions at BHCS, Dr. Masica serves in several national leadership roles related to health care quality and patient safety improvement. He is on the editorial board of American Journal of Medical Quality and is a peer reviewer for Journal of General Internal Medicine and Mayo Clinic Proceedings. He is also Clinical Advisor for the Diabetes Consortium of the AHRQ DEcIDE Network and Physician Quality Reviewer for the Texas Medical Foundation.
Dr. Masica earned his BA at Harvard, his MD at Indiana University School of Medicine, and his MSc at Vanderbilt University.
Presentation Topics
- Clinical Effectiveness and Patient Safety
- Clinical Pharmacology in the Intensive Care Unit
Terri Nuss, MS, MBA
Vice President of Patient Centeredness
Baylor Health Care System
Terri Nuss, MS, MBA serves as Vice President of Patient Centeredness for Baylor Health Care System. In this role, Ms. Nuss is responsible for the direction and execution of all activities related to serving patients, families, and colleagues. She also directs patient satisfaction data analysis and oversees training to help leaders and staff understand how service affects the experience and outcomes of care for patients.
Ms. Nuss joined Baylor Health Care System in 1992 and has led its patient centeredness initiative since 2006. Before becoming a system leader in patient centeredness, Ms. Nuss served in various leadership roles in Cardiovascular Services at BHCS. She also has experience working at the Texas Medical Center in Houston and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
With Ms. Nuss’s expertise and focus on servanthood, the Office of Patient Centeredness drives sustainable service improvement processes and supports Baylor Health Care System’s strategic goal of achieving customer satisfaction and loyalty. Under the leadership of Ms. Nuss, Baylor Health Care System is transforming culture and care to a patient-centered focus, to create a true partnership between patients and caregivers. Her expertise within patient- and family-centered care includes development of system structure and governance, identification of key initiatives and urgencies, engagement of colleagues and piloting the initiative, systematic implementation and assessment, on-boarding and education, and service recovery. In addition, Ms. Nuss has experience and expertise in measuring and reporting the patient experience through surveys, data analysis, and annual goal setting.
Ms. Nuss received her Bachelor of Applied Arts degree from Central Michigan University, her Master of Science degree from Pennsylvania State University, and her Master of Business Administration degree from Southern Methodist University.
Presentation Topics
- Patient and Family Centered Care
- Measuring the Patient Experience
Brett D. Stauffer, MD, MHS
Director of Clinical Decision Support
Hospitalist
Baylor Health Care System
Dr. Stauffer is a practicing hospitalist and the BHCS Director of Clinical Decision Support. In his roles, he has led a variety of BHCS efforts focused on technology improvement and care of patients with chronic disease, including development of order sets and improvement of care transitions for patients with heart failure.
Before joining BHCS, Dr. Stauffer served as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Fellow at Yale University and as Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine at University of Texas Southwestern Medical School.
Dr. Stauffer’s research efforts have focused on the improvement of health care delivery. He has served as a member of the Information Technology Section of the Texas Institute of Health Policy Research Shared Vision Project and is currently a Co-investigator on a project in collaboration with the University of Texas Health Science Center that was funded by the U.S. Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology for the Strategic Health IT Advanced Research Projects (SHARP) Program. His expertise includes clinical decision support and the development of physician-relevant usability metrics and guide validation efforts.
Dr. Stauffer earned his MD at the University of New Jersey Medical School and his Master of Health Science at the Yale University School of Medicine. He completed his Residency in Internal Medicine at Parkland Hospital through the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School.
Presentation Topics
- Health Technology Improvement
- Chronic Disease Management
James Walton, DO, MBA
Vice President of Network Performance
Baylor Quality Alliance
Dr. Walton serves as Vice President of Network Performance for the Baylor Quality Alliance. Prior to this role, he led health care equity improvement throughout Baylor Health Care System hospitals and the ambulatory care centers within HealthTexas Provider Network. With a career that spans more than two decades in health care management, clinical practice, and research related to community health improvement, he is dedicated to improving health care for all.
Dr. Walton joined Baylor in 1996 as medical director of the Office of Community Health. In 2006, he assumed the responsibilities of Baylor's Chief Health Equity Officer. In 2012, he assumed a leadership role with the Baylor Quality Alliance. Additionally, since 2000, he has served as the medical director of Project Access Dallas, a network of more than 2000 physicians and 15 hospitals providing comprehensive health care access to uninsured people throughout Dallas County. He also developed Baylor's Volunteers-in-Medicine program and has worked on community-level initiatives to pilot health improvement strategies.
Dr. Walton is active in the Dallas County Medical Society and the Texas Medical Association's efforts to improve Medicaid operations and funding. He has served on numerous state Medicaid-related committees, including the governor's Ad-hoc committee on Medicaid in 2004 and the Department of Health and Human Services' Committee on Integrated Care Management in 2005.
Presentation Topics
- Strategic Leadership for Health Care Equity Improvement
- Reducing Disparities in Health Care Access, Delivery, and Outcomes