Michael Bigham, MD, has been appointed Akron (Ohio) Children's Hospital's first chief quality officer.
Here are four things to know about the appointment.
1. As chief quality officer, Dr. Bigham will be responsible for overseeing all quality, safety and patient experience measures at the hospital.
2. Dr. Bigham has spent the last 10 years as a pediatric intensivist at the hospital's pediatric intensive care unit, and has also served as the medical director of transport services and chair of medical performance improvement.
3. While medical director of transport services, Dr. Bigham founded the Akron Children's Ground and Air Medical Quality Transport Database, the largest international collection of performance data on patient transportation.
4. "The new structure is a wonderful step forward to align quality, safety and patient experience under a single umbrella in our organization," said Grace Wakulchik, MSN, president of Akron Children's. "While all of our staff is responsible for quality, it is important to our patients and families that we have a consistent voice at the executive table to advocate for quality, safety and patient experience in all of our hospital's initiatives. We will now have that voice."