CDI Hosts NJ Health Care Quality Institute Meeting

The Hackensack Meridian Center for Discovery and Innovation (CDI) was host to the member breakfast and engagement event for the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute on March 30.

The event brought together roughly 80 thought leaders from Hackensack Meridian Health, the Quality Institute, health care organizations across the state, payors, pharmaceutical and testing companies, government officials, and a wide variety of other stakeholders.

The welcoming remarks were made by Linda Schwimmer, JD, the president and CEO of the Quality Institute. Programmatic updates were provided by Kate Shamszad, MS, MPH, the group’s director of policy; Adelisa Perez-Hudgins, MSN, RN, the director of quality; and Julie DeSimone, LSW, the director of community health.

The featured presentation was a new undertaking: a partnership between Hackensack Meridian Health and the CDI, and Quest Diagnostics, to track and prevent hospital-acquired infections. Jose Azar, M.D., the executive vice president and chief quality officer for HMH, explained how he became involved in hospital quality programs due to his oncology background - and

especially by witnessing the harms health care infections can cause. Yuri Fesko, M.D., the vice president of medical affairs for Quest, talked about the extent and scope of testing at the Nutley campus of the company. Barry Kreiswirth, Ph.D., member of the CDI and a veteran researcher, talked about his new project: bringing daily tracking of hospital infections at certain HMH locations, coupled with whole-genome sequencing, to track the spread of strains and better understand where transmission is happening - especially if it is happening in a health care setting.

The meeting ended with a networking session in the lobby of the CDI, over breakfast.