Executive

TEAM

Mark Reiter MD MBA is the founder and CEO of Emergency Excellence. He is a board certified emergency physician practicing in Tennessee. Dr. Reiter has extensive emergency department leadership experience and organizational experience at the state and national levels, most recently serving as the President of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM). In the past, he has served on the Board of Trustees of the Medical Society of New Jersey and as a Councilor for the AMA Council on Legislation. Dr. Reiter publishes (over 50 publications) and lectures (over 50 lectures) nationally and internationally on emergency department operations and quality topics. Dr. Reiter has an MBA with concentration in Healthcare Policy and Administration and has extensive experience in emergency department consulting. Dr. Reiter has been interviewed over 40 times for national media such as CNN, The Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, and Health Magazine.

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Stephen Wechsler, PMP is the COO of Emergency Excellence. He is an expert in goal-directed project planning, organization, and completion. Mr. Wechsler has national and international experience in organizational process improvement. He has managed large projects for global consulting firms such as Accenture. Mr. Wechsler is Six Sigma certified, an active member of the Project Management Institute, and adheres to international standards for quality and best practices.

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Emilio Belaval MD is the Senior Vice President of Implementation Services for Emergency Excellence and supervises our hands-on transformation projects.  He is a board-certified emergency physician practicing in Rhode Island.  Dr. Belaval has extensive management experience as a former ED Chairman and as a consultant has helped many hospitals develop some of the most operationally efficient emergency departments in the country.  Dr. Belaval actively lectures, publishes articles, and advises on topics including patient flow redesign and hospital change management.

Dr O’Connell is a board certified emergency physician practicing in Rhode Island.  Dr. O’Connell previously was the Chief of Quality Assurance for Medical Strategies and Management Systems, LLC (MS2), an emergency department consulting firm. He has served as the Chief Medical Officer of Landmark Medical Center and as the Chairman of Emergency Medicine at the Roger Williams Medical Center. Dr O’Connell served on the Rhode Island Ambulance Service Advisory Board from 2001-2007, was the Chairman of the Hospital Association of Rhode Island EMS Committee from 2002-2004, and was the EMS Director for the Saint Joseph’s Health Services. Dr O’Connell has extensive experience as a healthcare consultant specializing in patient flow, hospital quality measures, change management, and emergency department reimbursement.

Mr. Perea is a nurse practitioner with 25 years of nursing experience. Mr. Perea previously was the Clinical Director for Medical Strategies and Management Systems, LLC (MS2), an emergency department consulting firm. He is currently pursing a nursing doctorate specializing in administration. Mr. Perea has practiced as a nurse in Surgical/Cardiothoracic/Trauma ICUs and has nurse practitioner experience in the ICU and ED settings. He has served as the ED Clinical Director of the Saint Joseph’s Health Services, the nurse manager of an urgent care center, and as a Clinical Nurse Specialist at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Mr. Perea is dual Adjunct Faculty at UMASS and MGH and is a Visiting Scholar at Boston College. He is a senior consultant in health care information technology and specializes in hospital change management and emergency department operations. Mr. Perea is currently a Diversity Board Member at both MGH and Boston College.

Roger C. Ellis, PMP is an internationally recognized consultant, trainer and educator with over 42 years of business and industry experience, including 30 years at General Motors.  He is an expert in the implementation of lean enterprise, project management, Six Sigma, business process analysis and improvement, strategic planning, performance measurement, workplace design and productivity improvement, leading and managing work teams, benchmarking and competitive analysis, operations management, instructional design and course development.  Roger earned an MBA from the State University of New York at Buffalo, an MSE from Purdue University and a BSIE from General Motors Institute (now known as Kettering University).  He is certified as a Six Sigma Master Black Belt and as a Project Management Professional (PMP), and is a member of the Project Management Institute (PMI) and the International Society of Six Sigma Professionals (ISSSP).

Sandra Mackenzie MSN RNP has extensive clinical and hospital administrative experience as a former ED nurse, ED Charge Nurse, ED Nurse Manager, OB nurse, Inpatient Nursing Supervisor and as an RNP working in ED, ICU and Outpatient settings. Ms. MacKenzie is also active in clinical practice and is part of the nursing faculty at the University of RI where she still teaches. Ms. MacKenzie obtained her MSN and NP degrees from the University of RI with honors.

Jeanne McGrayne RN MSN is an emergency nurse consultant who works with hospitals nationwide to improve their performance and outcomes. She continues to maintain her clinical practice skills by practicing part time in a top-performing center. Jeanne has significant expertise in emergency department operations, benchmarking, data analysis, and best practices. Jeanne is currently a Director with PremierConsulting Solutions, part of Premier, Inc. of Charlotte, NC. She has previously worked in a similar capacity with VHA, both large not for profit hospital alliances. Jeanne has participated in literally hundreds of emergency department consultations, written dozens of articles, and delivered scores of national lectures on emergency department operations topics over the past 18 years. Jeanne is an active member of the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA) and Institute of Industrial Engineers.

Jesse Pines MD MBA MSCE is a board certified emergency physician practicing in Washington, DC with extensive experience in quality improvement, patient safety, operations research, and clinical epidemiology. He currently serves as Director of the Center for Health Care Quality, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Health Policy at George Washington University. Dr. Pines speaks nationally on patient safety and quality issues and is an invited speaker at the 1st annual Emergency Medicine Patient Safety Foundation. He holds a leadership position in the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (QIPS) Section, and is currently co-leading a grant-funded project to develop a conceptual model for procedural safety in the ED. Dr. Pines has been awarded grant funding in issues related to patient safety and quality from multiple organizations including the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Emergency Medicine Foundation, American College of Emergency Physicians, American Geriatrics Society, and others. He is author on more than 100 peer-reviewed publications and has co-authored two books. He is a regular contributor to Time magazine and Slate.com on medical issues.

Vicky Vance Esq. is an attorney with Tucker Ellis & West (Cleveland office). She is the former Senior Counsel and Director of Litigation for The Cleveland Clinic Foundation. Her legal practice now focuses on counseling and representing healthcare providers and insurers in the evaluation and mitigation of claims and other risks. Vicky is an active member of American Society for Healthcare Risk Management (ASHRM) and lectures nationally on several medical-legal topics.

Jens Hansen DNP, CRNP is a board certified nurse practitioner and a faculty member at a midlevel provider emergency residency program. Jens has earned his Doctor of Nursing Practice degree and has experience as a clinical education consultant and as a clinical instructor for nursing students. Jens is a member of the Emergency Nurses Association and the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.

William Jaquis MD is a board certified emergency physician practicing in Maryland. Dr. Jaquis has served as Chief of Emergency Medicine for several emergency departments. He has extensive experience in emergency department operations, quality improvement, and managing complex systems.

Cheryl Graf ARNP, MSN, MBA is a nurse practitioner practicing in Washington. She has much leadership experience as an emergency department nursing director and house supervisor, and has over 5 years of consulting experience.