Dr. David Mayer: How to Make Patient Safety the Top Priority

Joining us today on The Scope is Dr. David Mayer. Dr. Mayer is a Board-certified anesthesiologist who worked at Michael Reese and University of Illinois hospitals. After spending several years as the Medical Director of Abbott Laboratories, Dr. Mayer started his own healthcare supply chain technology company. Esurg specialized in selling medications and supplies to physician practices, and eventually sold to Henry Schein. His passion for teaching and improving patient care brought him back to the University of Illinois as the Associate Dean of Medicine before leaving to become the Vice President of Quality and Safety at MedStar Health out east. Dr. Mayer has talked about retirement for years but his innate desire for reducing medical errors today has him as the CEO of the Patient Safety Movement Foundation and the Executive Director of MedStar Health’s Institute for Quality and Safety.

He is known internationally for his work reducing medical errors in ways that the industry has needed for decades, and we applaud Dr. Mayer for these efforts that prioritize protecting the patient. He is a remarkable physician, leader, individual, and father as I have personally been able to experience. It is a special honor to have him join me today to discuss how his passion for positively impacting the industry has influenced thousands, including myself, to improve outcomes and care for patients and providers.

On today’s episode, we’re going to chat about the future of patient safety, value-based care, how access to healthcare has evolved over the years, and how to optimize safety and quality while reducing the costs that have burdened the current healthcare landscape for years.

Highlights include:

1. Dr. Mayer’s experience being a leader in multiple areas of the healthcare space taught him vital lessons on leadership that he shares with us today.
2. He gives his insights on how and why the industry needs to invest in developing physician leaders.
3. We discuss how leaders in the industry balance “value-based care” and what this industry buzzword truly means to him.
4. Dr. Mayer talks about who he sees as the disruptors and innovators who will help solve some of the industry’s most significant challenges.
5. We talk about how his passion and dedication for patient safety came to be and what accelerated that passion.
6. Dr. Mayer tells us about the walk across America he started to raise awareness about unnecessary medical harm and lives lost due to system and provider errors. Check out his progress here @walkforPTsafety
7. Lastly, we have a conversation about the biggest challenges and obstacles in making patient safety a top priority and a foundation of the future of healthcare and value-based care initiatives.

I invite you to follow David Mayer on Twitter and LinkedIn to hear more of his insights on this industry.

For more episodes of The Scope, follow along on Twitter at @TheScope_MA and on LinkedIn here. If there are any guests you’d like to hear on The Scope, send your ideas my way – you can message me on LinkedIn.