The UNT Health Science Center at Fort Worth has named an executive director of its forthcoming Institute for Patient Safety, which is said to be the nation’s first safety institute dedicated to figuring out actionable change for the medical industry.
Dr. Thomas Diller, an internist and physician executive, will step down from his role as chief medical officer at Irving-based Christus Health to take on the role. He spent 21 years before that as an internist, working within occupational, preventive, and emergency medicine. He will be the first ever executive director for the Institute, which was funded by $4 million in state funds, secured by State Sen. Jane Nelson (R-Flower Mound). The UNT Health Science Center saw to its creation in order to help establish data-driven, proven best practices that can eliminate clinical variability.
“We can’t ask people to just work harder and smarter,” read a statement from. Diller. “We have got to put them in an environment where they have all the tools they need in order to do the right thing.”
Diller will be charged with building the institute into a resource for its community partners: JPS Health Network, Cook Children’s Medical Center, and Texas Christian University. The school says medical errors affect 9,000 North Texans each day. A controversial recent study pegged medical errors as the nation’s third leading cause of death, trailing only cancer and cardiovascular disease. There are others in this field, but they’re more academic, such as Johns Hopkins’ Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality.
The importance of the Fort Worth Institute creating actionable changes is this, according to Dr. Michael Hicks, the executive vice president for clinical affairs: “We are killing probably one or two people every day, maybe more,” in Dallas-Fort Worth. He’s also charged with attracting buy-in from other health providers, to grow the Institute into a benefit for the region as a whole.
“Dr. Diller is an accomplished clinician and physician executive with extensive experience and knowledge in patient safety, quality improvement and outcomes management,” Hicks added. “His expertise will be invaluable in our efforts to create a collaborative environment at the Institute that is committed to reducing medical errors and enhancing the well-being of the patient.”
Correction: An earlier post reported that Dr. Diller was the chief operating officer. He was the chief medical officer.
