St. Louis-based BJC HealthCare has created the role of chief clinical officer and chosen Clay Dunagan, MD, to fill it.
Dr. Dunagan has been with BJC HealthCare for 20 years as vice president of quality and leader of the Center for Clinical Excellence. He will retain that role in addition to becoming the senior vice president and CCO for the system.
In his new role, he will work with Washington University Physicians and other physicians affiliated with BJC to oversee development of comprehensive, evidence-based approaches to care, including how to better use health IT to support care and establishing accountability measures for outcomes at the all levels.
"We are pleased that Clay has accepted the position and look forward to what it will mean for enhancing our clinical governance across BJC HealthCare, especially in regard to implementation of a comprehensive electronic medical record and population health management," said Richard Liekweg, BJC executive vice president. "This is an important step for the future of patient care across BJC and we are fortunate to have a physician leader like Clay lead us."
Dr. Dunagan is also a professor of medicine at Washington University School of Medicine and holds appointments in the Divisions of Infectious Diseases and General Medicine Sciences in the Department of Medicine.