The following was emailed to all team members on Dec. 6, 2016:
Dear Team Members:
I’m pleased to announce that Dr. Thomas Diller, Vice President and System Medical Officer for Christus Health, has been appointed Executive Director of the Institute for Patient Safety (IPS) at UNT Health Science Center.
See more on the IPS: https://www.unthsc.edu/institute-for-patient-safety/
Dr. Diller is an accomplished clinician and physician executive with extensive experience and knowledge in patient safety, quality improvement and outcomes management.
He has held executive positions and leadership roles in several of the country’s leading health systems, where he led teams in improving the quality and safety of patient care using the full range of improvement and change management tools in rapidly changing health care environments.
Dr. Diller has spent many years in developing curricula that incorporate safety and organizational behavior science from other industries into the health care arena. That 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.
At Christus Health, Dr. Diller managed the system’s research and academic efforts and was responsible for optimizing medical staff performance. He also led its clinical standardization and patient safety, clinical risk management and quality initiatives, and served as the President for a clinical integration network.
Christus Health is a Catholic health care system with 28 hospitals in the United States, 13 hospitals in Latin America and over $5 billion in net revenue.
As IPS Executive Director, Dr. Diller will be responsible for transforming the Institute into a resource to advance patient safety education on the campuses of IPS’ collaborating institutions. And he will lead efforts to develop meaningful resources and tools for clinicians and health systems and to advance the body of knowledge in the science and application of patient safety.
The Institute for Patient Safety was created to address a pressing national problem. Each year, more than 250,000 Americans die from preventable medical errors, which are now the third leading cause of death in the United States. The number of Americans experiencing serious, but non-lethal, injury from preventable errors may be many times that number.
Dr. Diller is a graduate of Illinois Wesleyan University. He received his MD from the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine and a Master of Medical Management degree from the H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University.
Join me in welcoming Dr. Diller to campus as he begins this most important work.
Michael R. Hicks, MD
Executive Vice President of Clinical Affairs