Quality at Emory Healthcare

William Bornstein

In 2003 William A. Bornstein, MD, PhD was named Emory Healthcare's its first Chief Quality Officer, with responsibility for quality improvement and patient safety initiatives throughout the enterprise. A board-certified endocrinologist and internist, Dr. Bornstein earned his medical degree and PhD in cell and molecular biology from the Medical College of Georgia. He served an internship and residency in internal medicine at Duke and a fellowship in endocrinology at Harvard and the Massachusetts General Hospital, where he took a faculty position before coming to Atlanta in 1986 to practice at Emory Crawford Long Hospital (now Emory University Hospital Midtown). At Emory, Dr. Bornstein has spearheaded a range of quality initiatives in such areas as central venous catheter safety, sedation, correct-site surgery, and a "read-back policy" for doctors' verbal orders. He initiated and championed a medication safety program in Emory Hospitals that reduced the number of reported prescribing errors and won the 2002 Patient Safety and Quality Award for a health system from the Partnership for Health and Accountability.

Excerpts with Sample Quotes

The Swiss Cheese Model of Medical Errors (MP3, 1.14 MB) Audio Icon
Mistakes occur when, despite the many layers of the system, holes in the system line up.

Bring Equipment to Patients Instead of Patients to Equipment (MP3, 979 K) Audio Icon
A smarter model of care is to bring equipment to patients rather than moving patients around the hospital. An example of this in practice is the Neuro Critical Care ICU at Emory University Hospital.

LEAN and Unnecessary Waste (MP3, 562 K) Audio Icon
Some parts of the healthcare system, like medical billing, provide no value to the patient in terms of improving health. However, according to the LEAN model, many parts are completely unncessary.