Michele Lossius, M.D., started the new year in her new role — chief quality officer for the UF Health Shands hospitals and clinical programs. She will help shape the vision and strategy for quality as Job 1 across our clinical and academic programs.

Lossius joined the pediatric critical care division in 2006 and is now a UF College of Medicine associate professor and pediatric physician. She was promoted to division chief of pediatric hospital medicine in 2013 and has served as the physician director of quality and safety for pediatrics. Lossius also earned her undergraduate and medical degrees from UF and completed residency training in pediatrics at UF Health Shands Hospital.

“I am incredibly excited about this opportunity and humbled by the outpouring of support by colleagues across the various disciplines of care. We have a wonderful organization that seeks to be innovative in responding to today’s challenges in health care.  I look forward to being a part of those solutions,” Lossius said.

In the chief quality officer role, Lossius will provide strategic oversight for quality and patient-centered improvement efforts for the Gainesville hospitals and hospital-run outpatient programs. She will collaborate with staff in clinical risk management, patient experience, accreditation and clinical analytics through the UF Health Sebastian Ferrero Office of Clinical Quality and Patient Safety. Additionally, Lossius will support and work with physician directors of quality and quality liaisons across the organization.

She succeeds Eric Rosenberg, M.D., a UF Health Shands associate chief medical officer and College of Medicine chief of general internal medicine, who served as interim director of quality.

“Dr. Lossius has the many important attributes that are needed in a chief quality officer, including substantial experience caring for patients and immersing herself in quality and safety roles throughout her career,” said Ed Jimenez, CEO of UF Health Shands.

Lossius will guide organizational efforts to achieve outstanding performance on key quality and safety metrics, integrate residents in quality and safety work, engage patients and families and help maintain a positive culture of quality improvement. She will also be responsible for promoting a unified approach to quality and safety goals among executive leaders, nursing and operations teams and College of Medicine clinical faculty and residents.

Her quality and safety experience includes participating in team performance training that aims to improve patient care and a program that develops skills for teaching quality improvement and patient safety to medical students, residents and other clinicians. She also completed the Patient Safety Executive Development Program at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and the Intermountain Advanced Training Program in Healthcare Delivery Improvement.

As pediatric hospital medicine division chief, Lossius has led novel and innovative programs in education and safety. Clinically, she is involved with national projects related to bronchiolitis management, adverse drug events and fever in newborns. Lossius worked as the pediatrics physician director of quality and safety to reduce variation in care, decrease length of stay, establish protocols and develop strong working relationships across the institution.