Accelerating and Sustaining Safety and Quality in Healthcare

Matthew Miller

Associate Chief Quality Officer, Cleveland Clinic

Dr. Matthew Miller is board certified in internal medicine and clinical informatics and practices in the specialty of hospital medicine. He has held numerous leadership roles at Lehigh Valley Health Network, including Associate Chief Quality and Patient Safety Officer, as well as Senior Vice President and Chief Value Officer. Prior to joining Cleveland Clinic in November 2021, he was SVP, Chief Health Information Officer at LVHN. He serves on a number of national committees around quality and informatics.

Stephen Mrozowski

Senior Director of Safety & High Reliability, Cleveland Clinic

Stephen Mrozowski is a certified Professional in Patient Safety and a board-certified Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives. His clinical experience spans more than 20 years in prehospital medicine. Previously, he held positions as the Director of Patient Safety & Patient Safety Officer at the Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, a Clinical Quality & Patient Safety Manager at Penn State Health, and the Emergency Medical Services for Children Program Director for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Lisa Miller

Director of Continuous Improvement, Cleveland Clinic

Lisa Miller, MPH, CPHQ, oversees quality improvement work for Enterprise Strategic Initiatives at Cleveland Clinic. She has a master’s in Public Health from the University of Southern California and a bachelor of science degree from The Ohio State University. Lisa enjoys applying her knowledge of project management, lean continuous improvement and quality management to help coach teams doing improvement work and propel them forward.

Michelle Schill

Director of Quality Management, Cleveland Clinic

Michelle Schill oversees infection prevention, abstraction, accreditation, sepsis, ombudsman, patient safety and performance improvement at Cleveland Clinic Hillcrest Hospital. She also sponsors and coaches Solve/A3 teams, has achieved a 5.0 on the Hospital Engagement survey and has been a Tier I leader for 10 years. Previously, Michelle was a Quality Director at Cleveland Clinic’s Marymount Hospital, where she achieved a 74% reduction in hospital-acquired infections over two years.

Sarah Sydlowski

Audiology Director of the Hearing Implant Program and Associate Chief Improvement Officer, Cleveland Clinic

Sarah Sydlowski, AuD, PhD, MBA, is board certified in Audiology, with Specialty Certification in Cochlear Implants. Her clinical and research interests focus on implantable hearing devices, optimization of practice efficiency while maintaining strong outcomes and the development of innovative clinical delivery models.

In her role as Associate Chief Improvement Officer, Dr. Sydlowski works closely with CI specialists across the organization to develop a culture of improvement, where every caregiver is capable, expected and empowered to make improvements every day.

Teresa Craighead

Director of Quality, Cleveland Clinic Avon Hospital

Teresa Craighead is responsible for Cleveland Clinic Avon Hospital’s quality and safety management and monitoring, including the coordination and implementation of quality and patient safety initiatives. Her more than 20 years of experience in quality and safety span both the healthcare and commercial insurance industries.

Teresa has guest lectured at state and private universities on hospital inpatient quality and safety programs and public data reporting. She has also provided onsite assessment and consultative services for quality and safety processes, structure, outcomes and culture for one of the largest physician-owned healthcare facilities in the United States.

Maureen Carr

Director of Regulatory Affairs, Cleveland Clinic

Maureen Carr has worked for Cleveland Clinic for 26 years and has served in a variety of roles. Although her background is in laboratory testing, she has worked in the field of Accreditation and Quality for over 20 years. In her current role as Director of Regulatory Affairs, she oversees Point of Care Testing (POCT) for the Cleveland Clinic Enterprise and manages any projects to ensure compliance with regulatory standards for various agencies.

Gina Cronin

Chief Talent Officer, Cleveland Clinic

Gina M. Cronin, FACHE, guides the strategy for talent acquisition, leadership development, performance management and succession for the 70,000 caregivers within Cleveland Clinic, as well as the selection, hiring and onboarding for 11,000 new caregivers annually.

Previously, Gina directed clinical service lines, including overall operations, finance and strategy, most recently as Administrator for the Heart & Vascular Institute at Cleveland Clinic, which is rated the No. 1 heart center in the nation by U.S. News & World Report for the past 25 years.

Leslie Jurecko

Chief Safety, Quality and Experience Officer, Cleveland Clinic

Leslie Jurecko, MD, MBA, is responsible for the development and implementation of Cleveland Clinic’s Enterprise Quality, Safety, and Experience strategy. She is also a pediatric hospitalist with Cleveland Clinic Children’s. In 2020, Becker’s Hospital Review named Dr. Jurecko one of the top 50 patient safety experts to know. She was also listed as an honoree for Crain’s Detroit Business 2020 Notable Women in Healthcare, and Modern Healthcare named her as an “up-and-comer” in 2018.

Lisa Yerian

Chief Improvement Officer, Cleveland Clinic

Lisa Yerian, MD, is Chief Improvement Officer at Cleveland Clinic, where she leads a team of improvement professionals who build an improvement culture and drive strategic improvements for patients and caregivers across the organization. Dr. Yerian is also a Gastrointestinal and Hepatobiliary Pathologist at Cleveland Clinic. Since joining the organization in 2004, she has held several pathology and health system leadership positions.

Under her leadership, the Cleveland Clinic Improvement Model was developed, tested and refined as the roadmap for the organization to pursue a culture of improvement. The model is now used by other organizations within and beyond healthcare.

Melissa Johnson

Program Manager, Revenue Cycle Management, Cleveland Clinic

Melissa Johnson is a Program Manager with Cleveland Clinic in Revenue Cycle Management. She has worked within Revenue Cycle Management for nearly 10 years at Cleveland Clinic and also has 15 years of previous experience in customer service and project management in the health insurance industry. Melissa holds a bachelor’s degree in Healthcare Administration.

Myra King

Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Manager, Cleveland Clinic

Myra King, DNP, APRN-CNS, is an adult clinical nurse specialist in the Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute and an APRN Manager within the Office of Advanced Practice Nursing at Cleveland Clinic. Dr. King’s clinical expertise is critical care, with a focus on care of the cardiac and thoracic surgical patient populations. She has focused on initiatives to reduce hospital-acquired infections and improve quality outcomes, patient safety and patient experience.

Dr. King has completed three research studies as primary investigator on the topics of nursing time in chest tube management, child visitation in the ICU and ICU delirium recognition. She has received numerous honors and awards, which include the March of Dimes’ Ohio Nurse of the Year in Advanced Practice Award and the Nancy M Albert Excellence in Nursing Research Award.

BRENDAN PATTERSON

Chairman, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Cleveland Clinic

Dr. Patterson recently joined the professional staff at Cleveland Clinic after more than 25 years of service at MetroHealth Medical Center. He served as Chairman of Orthopaedic Surgery in the MetroHealth System for over 10 years, was promoted to Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in 2012 and was Executive Director of Surgical Services for the MetroHealth System for nearly five years.

His academic contributions are related to limb salvage and complex lower extremity fractures. Dr. Patterson was site principal investigator for the LEAP Study, funded by NIH. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgery and an active member of the Orthopaedic Trauma Association.