Costs of Care and The Leapfrog Group Now Accepting Nominations for the Annual Steven Schroeder Award for Outstanding Healthcare CEO


Jordan Harmon, John A. DiAngelo, Chris Moriates, and Leah Binder at the 2019 Leapfrog Awards Dinner in Washington, D.C.

“The Steven Schroeder Award highlighted our organization’s commitment to taking care of our community, in our community.” – Mr. John A. DiAngelo

Costs of Care, a leading nonprofit dedicated to helping clinicians and delivery systems improve the affordability of healthcare, in partnership with The Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit advancing the quality and safety of American health care, is now accepting nominations for the Third Annual Steven Schroeder Award for Outstanding Healthcare CEO. This award was created to recognize a hospital and/or health system CEO who has demonstrated courageous and ethical leadership addressing the twin issues of affordability and quality of health care in their community, which is now more important than ever in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The recipient of this year’s award will again be prominently recognized at The Leapfrog Group’s Annual Meeting, which takes place December 8, 2020 (in a virtual format as a result of the pandemic).

Past recipients of the Steven Schroeder Award for Outstanding Healthcare CEO include Gary S. Kaplan, MD, Chairman and CEO of Virginia Mason Health System in Seattle, Washington, and Mr. John A. DiAngelo, President and CEO of Inspira Health in New Jersey.

The Outstanding Healthcare CEO award is named in honor of Steven Schroeder, MD, Distinguished Professor of Health and Health Care at the University of California San Francisco and former President and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Dr. Schroeder has spent five decades inspiring and mentoring leaders to forcefully advocate for better quality and more affordable health care, and he has inspired leaders of both Costs of Care and The Leapfrog Group. Dr. Schroeder emphasizes, “At a time of an unprecedented pandemic, it is now more urgent than ever to use scarce medical resources to the best benefit of patients.” He maintains, “It is not possible for institutions to achieve this goal without visionary and courageous leadership. This award continues to recognize such leaders, with the intent to salute their accomplishments and to serve as a model for others.”

Last year’s Steven Schroeder Award was presented to Mr. John A. DiAngelo, President and CEO of Inspira Health in New Jersey. “The Steven Schroeder Award highlighted our organization’s commitment to taking care of our community, in our community,” said Mr. DiAngelo. “If we all remain focused on patient safety, clinical excellence, affordability and accessibility we will further strengthen our nation’s health care system.”

“With the COVID-19 pandemic, many patients have reported being even more concerned about the financial risks of accessing healthcare than they are of viral exposure, leading to delayed care and increased morbidity and mortality,” said Chris Moriates MD, Executive Director of Costs of Care. “Patients need to trust that the care they receive when they are most vulnerable, will be both safe and affordable. We need bold leadership to show communities that hospitals and health systems will do all they can to take care of patients’ needs.”

“More than ever, COVID-19 has shown how a health care system’s commitment to quality and safety can reverberate through a community and save lives beyond an institution’s walls,” said Leah Binder, President and CEO of The Leapfrog Group. “Those CEOs with vision and passion for their communities will do what’s right for their patients. It is a privilege to honor them.”

Nominations will be accepted through October 13th, 2020. For more information on how to nominate a CEO for the prestigious Steven Schroeder Award – please visit Costs of Care.

About Costs of Care

Costs of Care is a nonprofit organization dedicated to curating and broadly disseminating insights from the front lines of health care to help clinicians and delivery systems improve the affordability of healthcare. Since 2009, Costs of Care has collected more than 500 personal accounts from physicians, nurses, and patients all over the United States that illustrate routine and high yield opportunities to improve the value of care delivery through improved decision-making. Costs of Care has also created widely adopted and enduring resources to educate medical trainees, clinicians, and health system leaders about how to address health care costs to improve value and affordability, including the textbook Understanding Value-Based Healthcare, the Affordability Framework aimed at creating meaningful point-of-care guidance so that patients can make informed medical and financial decisions and health system leaders and policymakers can develop interventions to address components of patient affordability, the “COST” Framework for designing value improvement projects, and free, CME-approved video modules. Connect at http://www.costsofcare.org or follow us on Twitter.

About The Leapfrog Group

Founded in 2000 by large employers and other purchasers, The Leapfrog Group is a national nonprofit organization driving a movement for giant leaps forward in the quality and safety of American health care. The flagship Leapfrog Hospital Survey collects and transparently reports hospital performance, empowering purchasers to find the highest-value care and giving consumers the lifesaving information they need to make informed decisions. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, Leapfrog’s other main initiative, assigns letter grades to hospitals based on their record of patient safety, helping consumers protect themselves and their families from errors, injuries, accidents, and infections.

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