Ricardo Perez DO, JD FACOI

Lead hospitalist group in dyad model and drive evidence-based practices to optimize clinical outcomes throughout hospitals in the Jefferson Health East Region. Mentor medical directors at each hospital to foster culture of teamwork, professionally develop and train individual providers, and recruit and onboard new hires. Administer full scope of inpatient care with nursing and support staff, and coordinate with other providers to streamline operations including systems, patient flows, and scheduling. Ensure hospital compliance with Joint Commission regulatory standards, manage and resolve concerns about providers, and implement performance improvement programs to amplify quality, safety, patient experience and throughput, and transition of care.

Drove heavy recruitment, contract negotiation, and growth of physician group, coordinating with administrative partner to oversee clinical operations for ambulatory services with $32M budget. Led 15-member team of medical directors that manage provider groups in 33 practice locations. Directed medical group and collaborated across departments to ensure network integrity and compliance with medical regulations. Negotiated value-based care arrangements with regional payer groups, partnered with private medical groups to provide ancillary services, and pursued joint ventures with other healthcare systems to expand business and revenue.

· Increased number of group providers 30% through effective, dedicated recruiting and decreased patient scheduling lag time 20% by hiring 50+ providers during tenure and improving scheduling templates.

· Grew revenue $10M by driving continuous improvement to enhance operations and increase patient access to care.

· Conducted compensation assessments and restructured compensation models to include quality and productivity incentives based on key performance indicators and industry benchmarks.

Established relationships and networks with primary care practices as ACMO in South Philadelphia campus to improve safety, quality, and inpatient clinical operations related to hospital medical affairs and subspecialties while concurrently serving as CCO for Jefferson Health's accountable care organization (ACO). Led 2 direct reports as CCO and collaborated closely with population health team of 50+ FTEs, working to implement value-based care model to decrease readmission rates and cost of medical care.
• Boosted ranking in Vizient Inc.'s national community hospital database from 35 to 6 as ACMO by executing continuous process improvement analysis and establishing committee to ensure hospital systems met quality and safety metric standards. Presented at Vizient's national conference on processes for achieving outstanding improvements.
• Increased business and revenue by creating and partnering with primary care network in South Philadelphia, sharing data and expediting specialty appointments for network patients.

Established relationships and networks with primary care practices as ACMO in South Philadelphia campus to improve safety, quality, and inpatient clinical operations related to hospital medical affairs and subspecialties while concurrently serving as CCO for Jefferson Health's accountable care organization (ACO). Led 2 direct reports as CCO and collaborated closely with population health team of 50+ FTEs, working to implement value-based care model to decrease readmission rates and cost of medical care.

· Founded Medicare shared savings program ACO with 9,000 patients and successfully achieved goal to provide value-based care, reduce patient care costs, decrease readmissions, and improve quality across hospital-based and outpatient services.

· Negotiated upside contracts with commercial insurance companies, including shared savings program with Horizon that earned $700K in revenue 2 consecutive years.

· Increased support for post-acute patients by collaborating with population health team to send health coaches, social workers, and nurses into community and by developing preferred partnerships with high-quality sub-acute rehabs.

Oversaw safety and quality across 11 inpatient specialty departments and received direct reports from section head as Department Chair. Drove improvements in patient length of stay and throughput, credentialing, post-discharge follow-up, disciplinary action, and root cause analysis (RCA) for medical peer review and adverse event reporting. Established benchmark quality metrics for each department and ensured specialty areas met standards, implementing process changes as necessary to achieve metrics.

· Revamped peer review process and added multispecialty peer reviews following reports of adverse events, conducting peer reviews and RCA with all involved disciplines to ensure high-quality coordination of patient care across specialties.

· Achieved Leapfrog healthcare ratings in top 10% in observed vs expected mortality rates, earning A ranking across all hospitals in safety and quality.

· Reduced readmission rates from 25% to 12% by partnering with ambulatory specialists and population health team to ensure patients scheduled and attended follow-up appointments within 7 days after discharge to stabilize medical treatment regimen.

Founded inpatient hospitalist program with 4 providers, successfully curating and hiring outstanding team and growing number of providers to 20 by end of tenure. Leveraged personal network of professional contacts to independently build inpatient medicine provider group. Created strong, high-performing core group of providers still currently part of this team by effectively relating compelling vision for Jefferson Health's inpatient hospitalist program.

• Improved Graduate Medical Education program by increasing recruitment efforts, and coordinating a robust didactic education schedule.
• Created and enforced programming standards to maintain compliance with regulatory requirements.
• Responsible for the education of 52 Internal Medicine Residents to prepare them for their board certification exam.
• Monitored programming schedules, conformance to guidelines and quality.

• Oversaw resident schedules and assignments for hospital coverage.
• Monitored programming schedules, conformance to guidelines and quality.
• Conducted performance reviews of residents and offered feedback for improvement.
• Supported the Program Director in overseeing daily operations, ensuring timely completion of tasks and meeting project deadlines.

• Developed curriculum to expose medical students to legal topics that intersect with the practice of medicine.
• Organized external lecturers to present a myriad of legal topics to medical students.
• Worked with a defensive medical malpractice law firm to create a mock trial that medical students participated in.
• Created and presented lectures surrounding the topics of telemedicine liability, healthcare law, medical malpractice, and others.

• Organized educational schedules for Rotating and Internal Medicine Interns.
• Coached Interns through day-to-day work issues and patient care.
• Gathered and organized materials to support medical training and education.
• Evaluated individual performance, and provided feedback for improvement.

• Applied legal background and Juris Doctor degree to teach medical jurisprudence course to medical students as assistant professor.
• Utilized exceptional public speaking and presentation skills to deliver lectures on health law and regulatory compliance.
• Involved heavily in clinical and medical education as Intern Coordinator and Residency Program Director.
• Authored medico-legal board examination questions for certification exams.
• Enhanced students' understanding of complex medical concepts by incorporating real-life case studies and clinical scenarios in lectures.

• Participated in training program for Internal Medicine board certification.
• Helped in coordinating patient care in the outpatient and inpatient setting.
• Learned about a myriad of disease states, and the standard of care in their treatment.
• Served as Chief Resident in my final year of residency training.

• Administered medical care to soldiers that were part of the NJ Army National Guard.
• Collaborated with interdisciplinary teams to develop comprehensive treatment plans for patients.
• Provided medical support to NJ Army National Guard training programs.