HMS Sepsis – How a State-Wide Quality Collaborative Facilitates Performance Improvements and Collaboration

Dr. Hallie Prescott is an Associate Professor in Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine at the University of Michigan and staff physician at the Ann Arbor Veterans Affairs Hospital. She is an expert in long-term outcomes and recovery after sepsis. Her research program has been funded by AHRQ, NIH, and Department of Veterans Affairs. She is a vice-chair of the Surviving Sepsis Campaign guidelines, council member of the International Sepsis Forum, and physician-lead for a BlueCross/Blue Shield of Michigan sepsis quality improvement consortium of 50 Michigan hospitals.

Pat Posa is the Quality and Patient Safety Program Manager for UH/CVC at Michigan Medicine. In this role, she is responsible for development, measurement and sustainability of the UH/CVC segment quality and patient safety program. Most recently, Pat was a Quality Excellence Leader for St. Joseph Mercy Health System in Southeastern Michigan, leading initiatives to reduce hospital-acquired conditions, improve patient outcomes for critically ill patients, and reduce readmissions. She also works as the Population Health Clinical Integration Leader. In this role she has implemented a risk prediction tool and associated interventions within the hospital and post-acute settings. She also works as a Quality Excellence Leader for St. Joseph Mercy Hospital. She has held various roles in healthcare in the hospital, ambulatory setting, and health plan over her 40 years in practice, including manager of inpatient critical care units, Director of Nursing, and administrator of an outpatient multispecialty/primary care clinic. Pat has been involved in many quality and patient safety programs such as hospital- and system-wide sepsis management programs and a statewide Keystone ICU patient safety initiative. She has served on the faculty for multiple state and national clinical collaboratives including the Surviving Sepsis Campaign Phase IV Collaborative, the national project on Comprehensive Unit Safety Program (CUSP) for Mechanically Ventilated Patients, and Society of Critical Care Medicine’s ICU Liberation Collaborative. Through Pat's leadership, St. Joseph Mercy Hospital was awarded the HHS / Critical Care Societies Outstanding Leadership in Eliminating CLABSI and VAP in 2011. She was inducted as a fellow into the American Academy of Nursing in 2013. Pat was also awarded the Michigan Hospital Association Quality and Patient Safety Leadership Award in 2017. Pat has published many articles in both clinical and quality journals. She lectures and consults extensively nationally on sepsis, critical care, patient safety, and quality topics. Pat received a Bachelor in Nursing from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan and her Masters of Science in Administration from Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan.

Scott Flanders, MD, Professor of Internal Medicine, serves as Chief Clinical Strategy Officer for Michigan Medicine, Vice Chair of External Relations in the Department of Internal Medicine, and is a hospitalist in the Division of Hospital Medicine. Dr. Flanders was a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) and is a Past President of SHM. He received his Medical Degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and completed his residency and chief residency at the University of California, San Francisco.

Megan Cahill, DO, MBA, is a distinguished healthcare leader and the Division Chief of Medicine at Henry Ford Macomb Hospital, leading over 750 physicians and Advanced Practice Providers across 20 medicine specialties. With a servant leadership style, she excels in navigating complex decisions, fostering team collaboration, and adapting to change. As an Emergency Medicine physician, Dr. Cahill is well-versed in sepsis management and began her leadership journey overseeing the Sepsis Steering Committee as the Sepsis Improvement Physician Champion.  This passion for enhancing clinical management of sepsis and improving patients’ lives sparked further quality improvement work in antimicrobial stewardship, diagnostic stewardship, hospital-acquired infections, and vascular access devices. Recognized for leadership in education, patient safety, and professional advocacy, Dr. Cahill's multifaceted expertise serves her larger vision for continuous advancements in healthcare nationwide.

Amy McKenzie, MD, MBA is a board-certified family medicine physician with 13 years of experience in private practice and over ten years of experience in healthcare administration and clinical leadership. Dr. McKenzie joined Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan in 2013 as a physician consultant supporting Quality Management and Accreditation and is now the Associate Chief Medical Officer and Vice President leading Clinical Partnerships. Her team is responsible for providing clinical leadership for provider value-based programs and risk contracting and helps to enable and support the network through education, communication, and partnering on practice transformation efforts. She also leads the Behavioral Health Strategy and Planning team responsible for development and implementation of the BH strategy. Dr. McKenzie graduated from Northeast Ohio Medical University and completed her residency at Ascension Providence Hospital in Southfield, Michigan. In 2017, she received her MBA with a focus in medical management from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is currently serving as Vice Chair on the State of Michigan Certificate of Need Commission and is a past president on the Family Medicine Foundation of Michigan.