Amir Jaffer Takes Organizations from Good to Great

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Amir Jaffer is just nine months into his role as regional chief medical officer at SSM Health in the St. Louis area and he’s making an impact. A care provider turned administrator, Jaffer has made a name for himself by making good systems better. It’s a process he clearly values, and he is well on his way at SSM Health.

Jaffer’s journey began from far St. Louis. The physician and executive grew up in Pakistan, the son of Indian immigrants. He came to the US after high school to pursue a career in medicine. After completing undergraduate and medical school at Boston University in seven years, internship and residency stints at Yale New Haven Hospital, Jaffer “grew up” professionally at the Cleveland Clinic over the next decade.

During those years, Jaffer assumed the medical directorship of the Internal Medicine Preoperative Assessment Consultation and Treatment Center (IMPACT), which eventually became the largest hospitalist-run preoperative medical clinic in the country. Jaffer and his late boss Dr. Franklin Michota also established the Perioperative Medicine Summit in conjunction with the Society of Perioperative Assessment Quality Improvement (SPAQI), which is still meeting to this day. Jaffer recently addressed their twentieth-anniversary summit.

After earning his executive MBA more than thirteen years ago at the University of Miami Business School, Jaffer began more directly focusing on leadership in healthcare quality improvement. He was recruited to multiple leadership roles at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and then as chief medical officer to New York-Presbyterian in Queens.

In five years at New York-Presbyterian Queens, Jaffer took the hospital from a one-star CMS rating to five stars, the highest ranking possible. It was the only hospital in Queens to earn this designation. Jaffer’s team also earned the hospital the Joint Commission’s accreditation, secured top-decile rankings in the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program, and successfully implemented a system-wide transition to the Epic electronic health record system.

After transforming institutions in Miami, Chicago, and Queens, Jaffer found a new opportunity to lead in the Midwest at SSM Health. “What attracted me to this role initially was the opportunity to work with my friend and academic collaborator, Dr. Bob Pendleton,” Jaffer says of SSM Health’s St. Louis region chief clinical officer. “We’ve worked on research together over the years, and I’ve recruited physicians from his team when he worked for the University of Utah. I have the utmost respect for him, and I very much wanted to be a member of his team here.

“What also drew me to SSM Health was deep alignment with its mission, vision, and values, which resonate with my own commitment to compassionate care, excellence, and serving those most in need,” he continues.

True to form, Jaffer has already developed a road map in collaboration with Bob Pendleton and his partner, Regional Chief Nursing Officer Marcia Lysaght, for SSM Health’s St. Louis region. “We’re very much focused on improving on our already exceptional quality, safety, efficiency, healthcare transformation, and operational efficiencies, “Jaffer says. “We are focusing on delivering clinical excellence so that every patient receives the best care—quickly, efficiently, safely, and with an exceptional experience.”

Jaffer says the road map he’s created along with his colleagues Pendleton; Lysaght; and the quality, safety, and infection control teams will position the region and hospitals as industry leaders for quality and safety outcomes. But more importantly, it will create more engaged teams that will ultimately lead to better patient experience. Over nine months, Jaffer says his organization has seen improved outcomes and he knows the trajectory will continue.

Jaffer’s commitment to care extends well beyond his role at SSM Health. Although he has spent decades in the US, Jaffer is still fighting for better conditions in his native Pakistan. The physician and leader serves on the board of the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, primarily known for providing free cancer treatments to most of its patients. Jaffer was motivated to work with the organization after his brother died from head and neck cancer.

“We are focusing on delivering clinical excellence so that every patient receives the best care—quickly, efficiently, safely, and with an exceptional experience.”

Amir Jaffer

Additionally, Jaffer is a board member of the Hub School, a nonprofit boarding school in his former hometown of Karachi. That school was created, in part, by his father, a former ambassador to the United Kingdom and businessman who sought to give back to his country through education.

“My father taught us all that education was so important to create the future leaders,” Jaffer says. “I always thought that I would come back to Pakistan to help give back to my country, but since I was not able to return, I volunteer my time on these two boards to give back to the country where I was born.”

Now in Missouri, Jaffer is looking forward to building similar local connections. His volunteer work has extended into several communities where he’s lived over the years, and that will likely continue in his new home. He has also partnered with the University of Missouri–St. Louis to develop a physician leadership development program to develop emotionally intelligent, strategic, collaborative, and mission-aligned physician leaders.

It’s early in Jaffer’s tenure at SSM Health, but the signs are already there. The leader knows how to drive positive transformation, and he’s bringing that energy to St. Louis.

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