John R. Combes, MD

Center for Healthcare Governance
One North Franklin Street
Suite 2800
Chicago ILUSA
60606

Biographical Sketch: John R. Combes, M.D., is a Senior Vice President at the American Hospital Association (AHA) and the President of the Center for Healthcare Governance (CHG), an AHA affiliate organization. CHG is a dynamic community of board members, executives and thought leaders dedicated to advancing excellence, innovation and accountability in healthcare governance through education, tool development and research. Dr. Combes also serves as Senior Fellow at The Hospital Research and Education Trust (HRET), and in that role focuses on quality and leadership issues in Patient Safety, End of Life Care and Clinical Performance Improvement. Dr. Combes received his medical degree from Cornell University in New York and received his post-graduate training from Boston City Hospital. He is certified in Internal Medicine by the American Board of Internal Medicine and has Management Certification from the American College of Physician Executives. Dr. Combes has held several senior management positions at a variety of healthcare organizations. More recently he serves on several national advisory groups on medical ethics, palliative care and reduction of medication errors. He serves as Principal Investigator for an AHRQ national initiative to reducing central line infections through the use of a comprehensive unit based patient safety approach pioneered by Johns Hopkins University. Currently, Dr. Combes serves on the Boards of the Hospital Sisters Health System, a 13 hospital health system in Illinois and Wisconsin and the West Virginia Medical Institute, a multi-state Quality Improvement Organization. He also is a member of the Not-for-Profit Advisory Council of the National Association of Corporate Directors. He lectures frequently on governance and quality.