NEHI President Wendy Everett Recognized for Health Care Leadership by the Boston Business Journal

September 18, 2009

Cambridge, MA – Wendy Everett, President of the New England Healthcare Institute (NEHI), has been named a 2009 “Champion in Health Care” by the Boston Business Journal, and was recognized this morning at a breakfast at the Boston Harbor Hotel.

Everett, who became NEHI’s first president in 2002, was honored as an administrator who is “changing the way health care organizations do business.”

When Everett joined NEHI, it was a startup founded by a group of health care leaders who believed that collaboration was critical to solving health care challenges. Under her leadership, NEHI has grown to over 70 members, representing every sector in health care, who come together to debate health care problems and identify solutions. With the support of this diverse constituency, NEHI conducts research aimed at improving health care quality and efficiency, fostering the adoption of valuable innovation, and promoting chronic disease prevention. The research is used to promote policy change that improves health care quality, safety and affordability.

“Wendy brings perseverance, passion, dedication, energy and intellect to the mission of enabling innovation in health care,” said Joshua Boger, founder and retired CEO of Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Chairman of NEHI, who nominated Everett for the Champion in Health Care honor. “During her tenure, she has strengthened NEHI’s commitment to using research to foster innovation, the engine for growth and advancement in our health and in our health care system.”

In 2008, Everett’s leadership was responsible for a major step forward in patient safety in Massachusetts. In partnership with the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, NEHI published research demonstrating that one in ten patients in a Massachusetts community hospital experienced a serious medication error. The research showed that computerizing the way physicians order medications through the use of computerized physician order entry (CPOE) technology could prevent up to 55,000 of these errors each year. As a result of Everett’s efforts to educate policymakers on these findings, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts made the adoption of the technology a condition of hospital licensure by 2012, and the 2009 federal stimulus bill (the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) requires CPOE as part of the “meaningful use” of electronic health records. 

“Thanks to Everett’s leadership, NEHI has changed the way leaders think about health care in the region,” said Boger. “They are working across sectors to generate new ideas that will improve health care quality and affordability for patients everywhere. And NEHI is making these ideas a reality.”

 ### 

About NEHI
The New England Healthcare Institute is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming health care for the benefit of patients and their families. In partnership with members from all across the health care system, NEHI conducts evidence-based research and stimulates policy change to improve the quality and the value of health care. Together with this unparalleled network of committed health care leaders, NEHI brings an objective, collaborative and fresh voice to health policy. For more information, visit www.nehi.net.