Peer-to-Peer Sepsis Quality Improvement in Action

Peter Pronovost, MD, PhD, FCCM, is a world-renowned patient safety champion, physician executive, critical care physician, and prolific researcher with more than 1,000 peer-reviewed publications. He is also an innovator who has founded several technology companies and a thought leader informing U.S. and global health policy.

Dr. Pronovost’s transformative work leveraging checklists to reduce central line-associated bloodstream infections has saved thousands of lives and earned him national acclaim. This life-saving intervention has been implemented across the U.S., and as a result, central line-associated infections that used to kill as many people as breast or prostate cancer have been reduced by 80 percent. In recognition of this innovation, his highest-profile accolades include being named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine and receiving a coveted MacArthur Foundation “genius grant.”

While serving as Chief Clinical Transformation Officer at University Hospitals Health System in Cleveland and as a Professor in the Schools of Medicine, Nursing, and Management at Case Western Reserve University, Dr. Pronovost developed a checklist to make visible defects in value and deployed a management and accountability system to eliminate those defects. This system reduced the annual cost of care for Medicare patients by 30% over three years while improving quality. In 2022, Dr. Pronovost lead the efforts that culminated in University Hospitals winning the American Hospital Association’s Quest for Quality award, the industry’s most prestigious honor recognizing its member organizations for their commitment to quality. He was named the Veale Distinguished Chair in Leadership and Clinical Transformation in 2023.

Along with the deputy secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Dr. Pronovost co-chaired the Healthcare Quality Summit, an initiative created in response to President Trump’s White House Executive Order to modernize and improve quality measures for HHS, Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense. Dr. Pronovost also serves as a member of the Presidents Council for Science and Technology Patient Safety Working Group that is producing recommendations for improving safety to President Biden.

Dr. Pronovost previously served as Johns Hopkins Medicine Senior Vice President for Patient Safety and Quality and was the founder and director of the Johns Hopkins Medicine Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality. He also served as the Senior Vice President for Clinical Strategy and Chief Medical Officer for UnitedHealthcare.

Dr. Pronovost was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2011, to the American Academy of Nursing, and has received multiple honorary degrees. He is an advisor to the World Health Organization’s World Alliance for Patient Safety and regularly addresses the U.S. Congress on patient safety issues. He is a founder of VisICU, a tele ICU company purchased by Philips; and Doctella, a health information platform for remote patient monitoring purchased by Masimo. He is a strategic advisor for several healthcare technology and venture capital companies. Today, he is known as one of the most influential executives and physician leaders in healthcare and one of the Top 25 innovators in healthcare.

Sarah Knowles, DNP, APRN, ACCNS-AG, GERO-BC, WCC, has worked at University Hospitals since 2006 and is currently a Principal Project Manager in the Quality Institute. In her grant funded role she has overseen the development and implementation of two system wide quality improvement initiatives – Learning from Defects (LFDs) and Peer to Peer Learning (P2P). Through the creation of these two programs, she has demonstrated her ability to lead groups of various sizes through change as they strive towards both process and practice improvement. Dr. Knowles has a long tenure of working with nurses at all levels in professional development activities. She is a respected clinical nurse specialist specializing in the adult and geriatric populations. Her research has focused on staff nurse acceptance and use of continuous vital signs monitoring (CVSM). She holds certifications as an adult/gero clinical nurse specialist in wellness through acute care, gerontological nursing, and wound care.

Dr. Knowles received her BSN from the University of Toledo, her MSN with a focus in Nursing Education from Cleveland State University, her post master’s certificate as a clinical nurse specialist from Kent State University, and her DNP from Ursuline College.