Valerie Madison Brown, MS, Deputy Director, Quality Improvement Group, CMS:
Ms. Brown opened the conference by welcoming the attendees on behalf of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). She indicated that CMS has been working on hospital quality for a number of years. Recently, CMS has been studying how hospital leadership impacts quality, recognizing that, in other types of industries, leadership engagement is important for achieving the desired improvements in quality.

Dale Bratzler, DO, MPH, Medical Director of the Hospital Interventions Quality Improvement Organization Support Center (QIOSC) and the Hospital Quality of Care Measures Special Study of the Oklahoma Foundation for Medical Quality (OFMQ):
Dr. Bratzler welcomed participants on behalf of the summit planning committee. He described the summit as a day of learning and leadership. He indicated that the summit was intended to inform the work surrounding the role of hospital leadership in the realm of transformational quality improvement.