Lane Donnelly, MD, named chief quality officer

Lane Donnelly, MD, has been named chief quality officer at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. In this role, he will focus on continuously improving care quality and patient safety as well as consistently striving to help enhance outcomes.

He will oversee several groups, including the Center for Quality and Clinical Effectiveness, the Performance Improvement Department and the Patient Experience team. These groups will work in a collaborative and complementary fashion with Dr. Donnelly to create more positive outcomes for patients.

Donnelly earned his medical degree from the University of Cincinnati in 1990 and also completed his radiology residency there in 1994. He went on to complete a pediatric radiology fellowship at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in 1995. While there, he attained the chief fellow position.

“I was one of those kids who had never stepped into a hospital but decided to be a doctor,” Donnelly said. “I liked the sciences. Luckily, it’s all worked out for the best,” he added.

Interestingly, his specialty in pediatric radiology also almost didn’t happen.

“I didn’t decide to do radiology until the last minute,” Donnelly said. But the excitement and innovation of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and the chance to work with esteemed colleagues, changed his mind. “In Cincinnati, the children’s radiology department was this phenomenal place. Things were happening there, and I wanted to be a part of it,” he added, also noting his happiness with his decision to dedicate his career to helping improving the lives of sick children. “The atmosphere at children’s hospitals are great. People are very passionate about what they’re doing,” he added.

Donnelly is a nationally recognized physician and scholar with accomplishments in research, multidisciplinary care, teaching, patient safety and quality improvement. His career has spanned over two decades and multiple cities across the country. His most recent role was as chief quality officer and associate radiologist-in-chief at Texas Children’s Hospital. Prior to that, at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, he served as radiologist-in-chief for nearly a decade and was the executive sponsor and project lead for the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital’s campaign to decrease serious safety events (one of the first in the country).

“This was my beginning of being in the quality and safety realm,” Donnelly noted.

That campaign set the groundwork for what eventually became the Ohio Collaborative for pediatric patient safety and, later, the Solutions for Patient Safety with HPI. This work has received national recognition for its significant reduction in serious safety events over a sustained period.

Another notable career event was helping open a brand-new children’s hospital as the inaugural chief medical officer and physician-in-chief at Nemour’s Children’s Hospital in Orlando, Florida. His career background also includes numerous staff radiologist positions, academic appointments and administrative positions, among others.

His vast experience, along with a passion for quality improvement and safety operations made Stanford the next natural step. “This seemed like a very exciting opportunity with a great organization and lots of smart people,” Donnelly stated, adding that so far, he’s been taking the time to get to know everyone and developing relationships that will aid in his new role.

“It’s been great,” Donnelly said. “There is a lot of innovative working happening here and I’m excited to draw on the experiences I’ve had in the past in hospital operations and quality control to help the people here accelerate their path of improvement,” he stated.