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Mohamad Fakih, MD, MPH

Chief Quality Officer
Ascension Healthcare
Grosse Pointe Woods, MI, United States

Mohamad Fakih, MD, MPH, FIDSA, FSHEA is Chief Quality Officer, Ascension, a nonprofit health system of 146 hospitals, over 2,600 sites of care, and more than 40 senior living sites. He leads the work on improving quality across the continuum of care. His main focus is to standardize the process to optimize disease management and avert patient harm. A substantial component of his work is building a structure to improve the clinical care, from identifying best practices, creating a process that supports both patient and provider adoption, and hardwiring it to achieve sustainable results. Some related achievements include improving sepsis outcomes, mitigating the risk for healthcare-associated infections, and enhancing antimicrobial stewardship in the acute care space. Another area of focus revolves on a comprehensive approach to chronic disease management in the ambulatory space to optimize patient’s health, in addition to promoting health equity. A foundational element to the successful outcomes has been the attention to engaging the different stakeholders and promoting accountability. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he led the system clinical response to management of infection and preventing exposure to associates and patients.

His research on reducing device-associated infections focuses on the appropriate use and proper maintenance. His earlier contributions include the creation of a comprehensive approach to promote the appropriate utilization urinary catheters in the hospital setting. His work was adopted by Michigan Hospital Association and Ascension and led to significant reduction in unnecessary catheter use. The initial work built the foundation for the 50 State AHRQ Initiative “On the CUSP Stop CAUTI”. In addition to preventing urinary catheter harm, he focuses on diagnostic stewardship for catheter associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI), an important element for antimicrobial stewardship and avoiding unnecessary antibiotic use for patients with asymptomatic bacteriuria.
Dr. Fakih has established a system antimicrobial stewardship structure for Ascension. The structure included accountability at both system, market, and local levels, with clearly identified physicians and pharmacists responsible to the antimicrobial stewardship programs. The work was in concert with Ascension’s commitment to the national efforts to Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria (CARB). Ascension has achieved standardization related to antimicrobial use, and appropriate testing. In 3 years, antibiotic utilization was reduced by >14% across the acute care setting, and hospital-onset Clostridium difficile by >30%.

Dr. Fakih is Professor of Medicine (FTA) at Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, Michigan. He is board certified in Infectious Diseases, and carries an executive Masters degree in Health Management and Policy from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. He has authored more than 70 peer-reviewed articles and more than a 100 published abstracts. He serves as a member on the CDC Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC). He is on the editorial boards of both Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology and the American Journal of Infection Control.

I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.

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