Lauge Sokol-hessner MD, CPPS

Dr. Lauge Sokol-Hessner is a practicing clinician, educator, researcher, innovator, and leader in patient safety & quality improvement. He has a track record of collaboration with clinicians, hospital leaders, and regional partners to develop learning systems and high-reliability organizations and he takes a comprehensive approach to preventing harm and driving sustained improvement, including multi-disciplinary stakeholder engagement; using a broad range of QI tools to deeply understand problems & identify opportunities; analyzing data to drive risk assessments & make decisions; designing & implementing changes to the EHR, policies/procedures/guidelines, and training; and hardwiring efficient & cost-effective processes that retain flexibility & resilience.

Dr. Sokol-Hessner has led numerous hospital-wide operational improvement initiatives with his comprehensive vision, designing >20 IT-related innovations, authoring multiple policies & guidelines, and improving the efficiency & safety of a wide range of care processes. His work supports health equity & workforce safety. He champions fair & just cultures, promoting transparency & collaboration, patient-family-centered care, and ethics. He and his colleagues led the expansion of the definition of preventable harm to include non-physical harms, and have articulated an innovative vision and framework for a more reliable “Practice of Respect” among health care professionals, patients, and their families. His co-leads work to sustain & spread an early communication and proactive resolution after the medical error program (CARe).

Dr. Sokol-Hessner loves mentoring and coaching and is dedicated to developing the next generation of leaders in quality & safety: he is a former Harvard-wide Program Director & the BIDMC Site Director for the HMS/CRICO Fellowship in Patient Safety and Quality; a co-course director for the HMS Masters in Healthcare Quality and Safety; and faculty at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.

Dr. Sokol Hessner grew up in Boston, completed his bachelor's in Ecology at Yale (studying spiders & insects), and medical school & residency at the University of Pennsylvania. He has worked in clinical settings in southern Africa and began his career as an attending hospitalist at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle. After 9 years in Boston, he is excited to have recently returned to the UW and the Pacific Northwest. He loves getting out into the woods and mountains and thinks being an uncle to his twin niece and nephew is the best job in the world.