Meet the Southern Regions New Chief Quality Officer

By Carol Leah Barsky, M.D., MBA
Executive Vice President, Chief Quality Officer
Professor of Emergency Medicine, Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine

I’m pleased to announce that Rajan Gurunathan, M.D., has joined Hackensack Meridian Health as the Vice President and Regional Chief Quality Officer for the Southern Market. Dr. Gurunathan will be working in partnership with senior administration and medical staff leadership and will oversee the southern region’s approach to quality and patient safety. In addition, he will help implement a coordinated quality and safety program that emphasizes ongoing performance improvement, preventable harm reduction, and engagement through collaboration and mutual learning. His role will facilitate the strategic direction set forth by the Board of Trustees, and work towards achieving high-quality goals and outcomes across the region and network. Dr. Gurunathan will report directly to me.

About Dr. Gurunathan

As a board-certified internist with 20 years of clinical experience, including over 15 years in leadership roles at academic medical centers in Manhattan and the Bronx, NY, Dr. Gurunathan has broad expertise in clinical practice, medical operations, and inpatient and outpatient quality improvement. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from The Johns Hopkins University, his medical degree from UMDNJ – Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and completed his residency and chief residency in Internal Medicine at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center, followed by a Clinical Quality Fellowship with the Greater New York Hospital Association. During his tenure as Division Chief for General Internal Medicine at the SBH Health System, Dr. Gurunathan developed and implemented a strategic plan focused on the quality of care metrics, workforce development, and clinical workflow redesign, which helped lead to top rankings for ambulatory care within the HealthFirst NY State Quality program.

In addition to numerous hospital committees related to clinical care and quality improvement, Dr. Gurunathan has served nationally as a member of both the Society of Hospital Medicine Quality and Patient Safety Committee, and the Society of Hospital Medicine Performance & Measurement Reporting Committee, and he continues to serve as a faculty mentor for the Greater New York Hospital Association Clinical Quality Fellowship program.

Please join me in welcoming Dr. Gurunathan to the team.