Dr. Frankel is a Principal at Pascal Metrics Inc. and co-leads its Clinical Group with Dr. Michael Leonard.

 

He is on the faculty of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and, since 1998, has co-chaired many IHI collaboratives in the USA and the UK.  He co-created and teaches in the IHI Patient Safety College, an 8-day intensive course for Patient Safety Officers and hospital leaders.  The College has trained many of the Patient Safety leaders active today in U.S. hospitals and around the world.  He is a lead faculty member for IHI patient safety programs across the United Kingdom, including a five-year program to improve safety in all the hospitals in Scotland (through the Patient Safety Alliance).

 

From 2000 to 2007 he was the Director of Patient Safety for the 44,000-employee Partners Healthcare System, the premier Boston-based integrated delivery system comprised of major Harvard teaching hospitals including the Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.  The position was one of the first of its kind in the USA.  He continues on as faculty at the Brigham and Women’s Patient Safety Center of Excellence where he conducts research on team training and leadership engagement in healthcare.

 

Dr. Frankel trained in pediatric anesthesia at Boston Children’s Hospital and cardiac anesthesia at Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital. He practiced anesthesia in an academic setting for ten years and private practice for 14 years.

 

He created and pioneered Leadership WalkRounds™, which is used by thousands of hospitals internationally to engage leaders in safety management, and continues to perform research to refine this management tool.

 

He actively performs research on, and has implemented many team practice programs in the USA and UK.  This area of focus has led to implementation of team training in operating rooms, obstetric and gynecology departments, interventional radiology suites, electrophysiology labs, radiation oncology departments, hospital medical and surgical units and ambulatory office practices.  Dr. Frankel has published on techniques of performing observation in these environments to evaluate team behaviors, attitude and threats to safe operations and care delivery.

 

He has published 3 books and numerous articles in a wide variety of patient safety areas.