Tetsu Butch Uejima MD, MMM, FAAP, CPHRM

Dr. Butch Uejima, Chief Medical Officer and Chairman of the Department of Pediatric Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine at the Nemours Children’s Hospital, Delaware, joined Nemours in August 2013 as chair of anesthesia. In February 2018 he was named chief medical officer to oversee all clinical activities in the Delaware Valley.

Prior to Nemours, Dr. Uejima spent his entire career at the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, formerly known as Children’s Memorial Hospital. His last position held there was patient safety officer for the organization. With assistance from the CMO and a colleague, Dr. Uejima helped to create and develop the patient safety program. As a certified health care risk manager (CPHRM), one of only a handful of physicians in the country with this certification, Dr. Uejima also served as the chief risk officer for the organization. In this role he oversaw all medical malpractice-related matters and was involved with medical malpractice lawsuits, the investigation of potential suits, and the risk financing part of the program.

Dr. Uejima was also the anesthesia director for the liver and small bowel transplant program in Chicago, a program he helped to launch in 1997. He has a long history of involvement with solid organ transplantation and served as an anesthesiologist for the first heart, lung, liver, and small bowel transplants that were ever performed at Lurie Children’s. He led other endeavors in Chicago as well, including helping to design and run the ambulatory surgery center (ASC), the nation’s 2nd oldest pediatric-specific ASC and first to house patients for overnight observation, where he served as medical director of respiratory for a few years.

Always a strong advocate for residents and fellows, Dr. Uejima was involved with the teaching program for trainees and began a didactic series for the fellows well before this was mandated by the ACGME. He remains actively involved with residents and fellow education at Nemours.

Dr. Uejima holds several national positions. He is currently the editor-in-chief of the ASA Anesthesia Patient Editorial Board; he is the immediate past president of Wake Up Safe (WUS), the quality improvement/patient safety arm of the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia (SPA), representing SPA at the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement data committee; and he is vice-chair of the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation’s committee on education and training. Dr. Uejima is also a reviewer for several anesthesia journals.

Dr. Uejima holds a Master of Medical Management degree from Carnegie Mellon, a physician-only leadership-focused program. He is the current chairman of the Leadership Development Committee of the Pediatric Anesthesia Leadership Council, comprised of 50–60 current pediatric anesthesia chairs. He also actively mentors about a dozen physicians and sends out monthly leadership-related material to a group of about 300 individuals across the country.