Patient Safety Expert Joins Tampa General Hospital's Medical Team

Tampa FL

18 February, 2022

9:55 PM

Description

Press release from TGH: Feb. 18, 2022 Tampa General Hospital (TGH) is pleased to welcome Elham A. Yousef, MD, MBA, MSC, SFHM, FACP, to the hospital's leadership team as vice president of Medical Affairs. Yousef is a nationally recognized expert in patient safety and quality improvement, particularly in the areas of improving diagnostic accuracy and building high reliability organizations. She comes to Tampa General from Case Western Reserve University, where she has been an assistant professor of Medicine. She worked at Cleveland Clinic Foundation for many years before joining University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland as the vice chair of medical operation and strategy, quality and patient safety, and medical education in Family and Community Health. "We are delighted to bring Dr. Yousef to Tampa General to build on our commitment to patient safety," said Dr. Peggy Duggan, executive vice president and chief medical officer at Tampa General. "At Tampa General Hospital, patient safety is at the core of all that we do and the cornerstone of our vision to be the safest and most innovative academic health system in the country. Dr. Yousef will help us further our commitment to operating each day as a high-reliability organization that safely delivers world-class care to our patients." At Tampa General, Yousef will work directly with the medical staff and clinical teams to improve quality and efficiency as the hospital continues to implement and elevate high-reliability strategies across the clinical organization. In medicine, clinicians in high-reliability organizations are always alert to the possibility of failure and working to prevent them; they develop systems that protect against human errors and regard safety as a core value that cannot be compromised. In Ohio, Yousef has focused on maximizing value and improving quality while reducing cost, implementing the pillars of high reliability into the center's daily clinical work, and seeking innovation in care coordination for multidisciplinary medical teams. She holds prominent chair and co-chair appointments as well as serving on multiple national committees with the American College of Physicians, Society of Hospital Medicine and Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine to further diagnostic safety. She worked on a committee for the Society to Improve Medicine that presented the "Road Map for Research to Improve Diagnosis" to Congress in 2018. "Our goal is Zero Harm," Yousef said of her work to improve diagnostic safety. "We ensure timely and accurate diagnosis by working in collaboration with patients and families to engage them early in the diagnostic process, and to make sure that decisions are made in collaboration with them to deliver truly personalized and patient-centered care." Yousef earned her medical degree from the Assiut University Faculty of Medicine in Assiut, Egypt. She is board certified in Internal Medicine and earned her MBA at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Yousef also holds several certifications in process improvement, communication and coaching, and mentoring physicians in professional development. She is a practicing physician, treating patients as a specialist in adult hospital medicine and perioperative consultation. This press release was produced by TGH. The views expressed here are the author's own.