NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi chief executive officer, Christopher Mastromano, announced on Monday, July 25, that Dr. Komal Bajaj, Jacobi’s chief quality officer, has been appointed to national advisory council of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

 

The AHRQ is a 21-member panel of healthcare experts which contributes a varied perspective on the health care system and the most important questions that AHRQ’s research should address in order to promote improvements in the quality, outcomes, and cost-effectiveness of clinical practice. The panel provides advice to the secretary and director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

 

Bajaj is the lone representative from the NYC Health + Hospitals health system as well as the lone representative from New York City. The public hospital network’s officials said Bajaj is an innovator and advocate in The Bronx, catalyzing quality and safety transformation across all facets of healthcare delivery as chief quality officer of NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi. She also serves as clinical director for the NYC Health + Hospitals Simulation Center, which delivers more than 10,000 interprofessional participant encounters annually. In this role, they said she informs the strategic use of simulation and debriefing as quality improvement tools.

 

Bajaj said joining the national advisory council was a true honor and she was delighted to serve. “Joining the council allows me to advocate for research and implementation tools related to issues that directly impact the health of our communities,” she said. “I am looking forward to the opportunity to advance the AHRQ’s mission to make healthcare more accessible, equitable, safer, and higher quality nationally,”

 

Meanwhile, Mastromano said Bajaj was a dedicated clinician who has committed her professional career to keeping patients safe. He added, ‘It’s an honor that one of our providers will be in a position to advise national leaders on healthcare delivery and safety.”

 

Bajaj’s term will run until May 2025.