Stephen F. Jencks, M.D., M.P.H., is an independent consultant in healthcare safety and quality, member of the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. His work focuses on understanding and preventing hospital readmissions and other harms from poor coordination of care, and his 2009 New England Journal of Medicine article, “Rehospitalizations Among Patients in the Medicare Fee-For-Service Program,” is considered authoritative.

At the Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services (1984-2007), he was Chief Scientist in the Office of Research and later was Senior Clinical Advisor and Director of the Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) Program in the then-Office of Clinical Standards and Quality. He led the transformation of Medicare’s QIO Program from focusing on deficient providers to achieving national improvements in health care systems. He has received the Ernest A. Codman Award and the Distinguished Service Medal of the U.S. Public Health Service, and he retired as Assistant Surgeon General.

Go here to listen to his conversation with QIO News.