Anthony Weiss, MD, MBA, MSc
Chief Medical Officer and Executive Director for the Silverman Institute of Healthcare Quality and Safety at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Anthony Weiss, MD, MBA, MSc, serves as Chief Medical Officer and Executive Director for the Silverman Institute of Healthcare Quality and Safety at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). A psychiatrist by training, Weiss has brought extensive experience in medicine and health care administration to BIDMC since he joined in 2018. His work focuses on quality and safety, clinical regulatory compliance, credentialing, and clinical program development. Weiss also has two roles at Harvard Medical School—Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Faculty Member at the Center for Bioethics, and he plays a key role as lead staff on the Quality/Experience and Patient Care Assessment Committee for the medical center. Get to know Weiss in this issue’s Leadership Spotlight.
What led you to take the role of Chief Medical Officer at BIDMC?
The medical center has a reputation as a great place to work, and it is well-positioned to build upon its history of excellence and compassionate care. I wanted to contribute toward its continued growth and development. So much exciting work is happening and pushing our mission forward. Becoming part of Beth Israel Lahey Health (BILH) has given us strength, and our recent upgrade to Epic will only improve the quality of care we provide. With all that is at our fingertips and our extraordinarily high-level of performance, there is no reason why BIDMC cannot be recognized as what it is: a premier hospital.
The prospect of moving to Boston was also a large part of taking on this role. It’s such an incredible place for health care. My wife is a nurse, and we have both spent our entire careers in the industry, so we couldn’t think of a better place to be. Rejoining the Harvard faculty was important to me as well. I teach ethics, healthcare improvement, and psychiatry. Helping to train and develop future leaders in health care brings me great joy.
In the time you have been here, there has been a tremendous amount of evolution and growth, including the BILH system coming together and the construction of the Klarman Building. What stands out when you reflect on the changes that have occurred during your tenure?
While so many things have changed in my time here, what remains constant is our belief in our mission. We always focus on providing extraordinary care where the patient comes first. Through COVID and workforce challenges, that remains our North Star. We have made great strides in improving six key quality measures. Our goal is to be in the top quartile of all these measures nationally and maintain the quality and safety scores we have worked so hard to achieve.
We also achieved Magnet status, which was a great undertaking and an incredible milestone. This strengthens our position as one of the most outstanding medical centers in our nation. My partner in all this work, Pat Folcarelli, RN, MA, PhD, Senior Vice President for Patient Care Services and the Cynthia and Robert J. Lepofsky Chief Nursing Officer at BIDMC, is an incredible leader with a strong national reputation in quality and safety.
Outside of quality measures, we have continued to expand mental health and psychiatric care, primary care, preventive colonoscopy screenings, and obstetrics. These areas aren’t always captured by nationwide metrics and highly publicized rankings, but they make a profound difference in the diverse community we serve. I can’t stress enough about how while we are growing and expanding, our mission does not and will not change.
As a psychiatrist by training, can you share about your time working with patients, and then what inspired you to pursue a leadership role in quality and safety administration?
I always loved working with people and helping them. Early in my career, I saw an opportunity to engage the psychiatry space and make changes for the better. As I grew, I realized that these same principles and skills I had gathered were translatable across health care as a whole, and it brought me great joy. And while I do have this leadership role, I am still involved in psychiatry—I see patients, and I teach psychiatry courses. I am passionate and committed to the work I do in that space, and simultaneously, about the broader efforts around continuous improvement across the medical center. I know that we’ll continue to reinvent the extraordinary care that we are known for.
Can you talk about your experience working on the Quality/Experience and Patient Care Assessment Committee?
Working with the committee as lead staff is an incredible experience, and I have gotten to work with three different committee Chairs. Currently, I work closely with Pam Lesser, who is an amazing leader. She’s brought a great perspective to the committee, and I have learned so much from her. Part of my role on the committee is to guide discussions of complex issues as they relate to medical care. The committee has a great responsibility to oversee the quality and safety of care at the medical center, and for me to be part of that—helping to fulfill their mission—is a rewarding part of my job.
It has also been a privilege to work with and get to know the members of our Boards through this work. These individuals are so dedicated to the medical center—they are kind, generous, and intelligent. They take time out of their busy days to think about the greater BIDMC community and act on it whether through giving their expertise or supporting us philanthropically. It is essential for an organization like BIDMC to have the support of people like this. Philanthropy is vital to furthering our mission of extraordinary care for all. Our board members help us push the needle forward and open doors that enable us to continue delivering excellent, safe health care to all the communities we serve.