Anthony Schuster, MD, MBA, CPE
Tony is adept at developing relationships and cultivating settings where collaboration and consensus leads to quantifiable results. He is passionate about leading change and fostering environments that support better care for patients and healthier atmospheres for clinicians and staff to work. His calm demeanor, practical approach and positive style allow him to adapt quickly to challenging scenarios. Outside of work, he enjoys implementing many of the tactics he teaches in healthcare organizations while coaching his sons’ baseball teams.
Professional Experience
Tony has over 18 years of healthcare experience as a clinician and a physician executive. As a part-time physician coach, he also leads two community hospitals for a large system as the vice president of medical affairs. Both hospitals have recently been recognized for their quality star rating (4 out of 5) by CMS. Tony is board-certified in anesthesiology, clinical informatics, and medical management. His clinical background includes working in academia at an NCI-designated cancer center, a large community hospital and a pediatric specialty hospital. Tony has also previously held positions including medical director of perioperative services for an outpatient center, assistant vice president of clinical effectiveness (quality), chief patient safety officer, chief medical information officer, medical director of perioperative services and vice-chief of anesthesiology.
Signature Engagements
- Recognized at the 2017 Studer Group What’s Right in Health Care® Conference for his work providing tri-annual leadership training with a partner, August 2017
- Helped build a team which included performance improvement, clinical decision support, accreditation, infection prevention and control and clinical informatics; this team was successful in significantly improving outcomes, resulting in recognition by the Joint Commission as a top-performer on key quality measures, 2013
- Effectively used the highmiddlelow® methodology, resulting in consecutive world-class employee engagement scores for his clinical informatics team
- Provided guidance for a major perioperative process improvement project which produced measurable and sustainable safety and operational results; percentage of first cases starting on time went from less than 15 percent to nearly 80 percent; turnover times for operating rooms decreased by roughly 33 percent; overtime for both OR nurses and nurse anesthetists decreased by nearly 40 percent; and overall OR utilization increased from approximately 60 percent to 80 percent
Education and Certifications
- Board-certified in anesthesiology, medical management and clinical informatics
- Masters of Business Administration, Executive Program, University of South Florida
- Doctor of Medicine, Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine
- Bachelor of Science, Human Nutrition, Ohio State University
Publications and Speaking Engagements
- “OAS CAHPS Compendium: A Guidebook for Improving Patient Experience and Outcomes Across the Ambulatory Surgery Continuum,” March 2017 (co-author)
- “OAS CAHPS At-A-Glance,” Whitepaper, 2016
- “The Impact of Electronic Health Records on Physician Burnout,” White Paper, 2016
- “Maximizing the Utilization of Your Current Perioperative Infrastructure,” Lecture for the American College of Healthcare Executives, Orlando, FL, 2010