Thomas H. Peterson, MD ’87, was recently invited to the White House to meet with the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology about its patient safety effort in the United States: A Transformational Effort on Patient Safety.
For over 30 years, Dr. Peterson has been active in community health promotion and population health efforts, receiving state and national recognition for his work in tobacco control, community activism, wellness programs, and childhood obesity prevention. He has spoken to over 135,000 schoolchildren on the dangers of tobacco use, vaping, obesity, and healthy lifestyles. Additionally, he has worked with universities, medical and nursing schools, businesses, city and state governments, communities, academies, hospitals, leadership organizations, and many other groups on the topics of community health, tobacco control, population health, quality improvement, and patient and employee safety.
Dr. Peterson, FAAP, is vice president, chief safety officer for Trinity Health, one of the largest healthcare systems in the United States. The system consists of 93 hospitals, 109 continuing care sites, over 38,300 providers, 142 urgent care locations, and more than 127,000 employees in 26 states.
He is leading the development of a new high-reliability organizing (HRO)/zero harm journey for the system called TogetherSafe. He additionally oversees all patient, colleague, long-term-care resident, provider, and ambulatory safety for Trinity Health.
Prior to this role, Dr. Peterson led national, statewide, and local HRO program development at children’s and adult hospitals, rural and urban health systems, and academic and community-based hospitals. A key focus of his safety work has been the “one safety” approach of both patient and employee safety as one effort. He has also designed or helped lead many safety training programs and collaboratives in both patient and employee safety. These efforts have led to the training of over 2,500 participants in high reliability and safety. He has designed and taught safety curriculums at medical schools, nursing schools, and residency programs.
We will continue to proudly support Dr. Peterson’s efforts as he continues his mission to develop and promote safety programs for all.
