Allan Frankel, MD
Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Frankel is an internationally recognized high reliability expert with a deep focus on leadership and culture change. Over the last three decades, Dr. Frankel has assessed more than 1000 organizations and trained and certified more than 3000 healthcare leaders and managers in safety and reliability. As Senior Faculty for the IHI and the Intermountain Advanced Training Program [ATP], Dr. Frankel has designed and led well-published efforts to transform national health systems, large health plans with millions of members, and integrated care delivery systems in North America, the NHS UK and Scotland, Hong Kong, and the Gulf Region. Dr. Frankel’s career in high reliability has been highlighted by serial innovations and contributions to the field. Some of these include co-development of surveys including the SAQ survey (1994), and the SCORE High Reliability Assessment Tool (2014); Executive Healthcare WalkRounds (2001); the Global Trigger Tool to measure all cause harm (2003); and LENS High Reliability Huddle boards (2016). Dr. Frankel continues to serve as a senior advisor for reliability and safety for the Military Health System; Kaiser Permanente; Mayo Clinic; the Veterans Health Administration and several other leading systems.
Dr. Frankel serves as a longtime co-editor of the Joint Commission’s Essential Guide for Patient Safety Officers along with his business partner, Dr. Michael Leonard. Key tenets of the central framework for high reliability that Safe & Reliable Healthcare co-developed and co-published with the Institute of Healthcare Improvement, including those related to assessment and change management, have been adopted by various organizations including the Joint Commission’s ORO 2.0 program. Dr. Frankel continues to develop and share field-defining insights on high reliability and is the author of three books and numerous peer-reviewed publications.
In the mid-90s, Dr. Frankel served as the first physician Patient Safety Officer in the United States for the Harvard hospitals / Partners Healthcare.
Co-Founder, CEO – Safe and Reliable Healthcare LLC, 2006 – present
Director of Patient Safety, Partners Healthcare, Boston and Member Brigham and Women’s Center for Patient Safety Research 2000 – 2007
Co-Chair Adverse Drug Event and Quantum Leaps Patient Safety Collaboratives, Inventor of WalkRounds, UK Safer Patients Initiatives, Scotland Patient Safety Program, Founding Faculty for the Patient Safety Officer Executive Development Program, IHI Open School – Institute for Healthcare Improvement 1998 – present
Founding Member Commonwealth Anesthesia Associates, Practicing Anesthesiologist, Medication Safety Officer, Assistant Professor Tufts U. School of Medicine – Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Newton, MA 1991 – 2006
Staff and Cardiac Anesthesiologist, Beth Israel Hospital, Boston 1986 – 1991
Boston, Massachusetts Medical Training: Medical Intern – Jamaica Plains Veterans Administration Hospital 1982-1983; Anesthesia Resident – Beth Israel Hospital 1983 – 1985; Pediatric Anesthesia Fellow – Children’s Hospital 1985-1986
Doctor of Medicine – Boston University Medical Center 1978-1982