UTSW alum Daniel named Chief Quality Officer
By Patrick Wascovich
Dr. Will Daniel, an experienced leader in driving clinical improvement, quality measures and measureable outcomes, and positive transformational changes, has been appointed as Vice President and Chief Quality Officer at UT Southwestern Medical Center after a national search.
Dr. Daniel, who started his duties on Nov. 28, most recently served as Vice President and Chief Quality Officer for Saint Luke’s Health System, where he provided medical executive leadership for quality and patient safety, data measurement, clinical excellence, and process excellence to an integrated delivery network with 10 hospitals.
“Dr. Daniel will provide leadership in the continued development and measurement of UT Southwestern’s approach to quality, performance improvement (PI), patient experience and outcomes, as well as medical safety,” said Dr. Bruce Meyer, Executive Vice President for Health System Affairs. “He is a graduate of UT Southwestern Medical School as well as having completing his Cardiology Fellowship here.”
Dr. Daniel, a member of the Medical School’s Class of 1990, said, “I am excited to return to UT Southwestern and have this opportunity to work collaboratively with clinical and entity leaders to guide the comprehensive, strategic and tactical planning, and implementation of quality, safety, and performance improvement programs across the enterprise.”
Dr. Daniel succeeds Dr. W. Gary Reed, Professor of Internal Medicine and of Surgery, who has served as Chief Quality Officer of UT Southwestern University Hospitals & Clinics and head of the Office of Quality Improvement and Safety since 2010.
A cardiologist, Dr. Daniel joined Saint Luke’s Cardiovascular Consultants in 1998. In addition to his patient care responsibilities, he served as the practice’s medical director for quality, clinical operations and Electronic Medical Records, and the Vein Treatment Center. He became a Saint Luke’s VP in 2013.
As a health system, Saint Luke’s ranks among the highest in the nation for mortality and prevention of harm as measured by Vizient (formerly University Healthsystem Consortium) and in patients’ perspectives in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey of patients’ hospital experiences. The 10-hospital system, located in greater Kansas City area of Missouri and Kansas and including Saint Luke’s Hospital, has received the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. The award was established by the U.S. Congress in 1987 to raise awareness of quality management and recognize U.S. companies that have implemented successful quality management systems and is given annually by the President of the United States. The Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology manages the award.
As a hospital system, Saint Luke’s has 1,025 staffed beds as well as an open medical staff with more than 2,000 physicians (400 employed).
A graduate of Princeton University, Dr. Daniel completed his residency at Washington University/Barnes Hospital before returning to UT Southwestern for his Cardiology Fellowship. He completed a year of advanced Cardiovascular Interventional Fellowship training at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute. He shared the first PAD Coalition Award for “Best P.A.D. Research Award in Vascular Interventions” in 2008 for work published in Circulation regarding quantifying improvement in symptoms, functioning, and quality of life after peripheral endovascular revascularization.
Dr. Daniel also has served as a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Missouri in Kansas City. He has previously served as the Medical Director of Quality for the Mid America Heart Institute.
Dr. Daniel and his wife, Debbie, have four children – two adult sons, another son at TCU, and a daughter at the University of Hawaii.
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Dr. Meyer, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, holds the T.C. Lupton Family Professorship in Patient Care, in Honor of Dr. John Dowling McConnell and Dr. David Andrew Pistenmaa.
