Stephen Jencks

Since leaving Federal service in 2007, Dr. Stephen Jencks has been an independent consultant in healthcare safety and quality and Senior Fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. His work focuses on understanding and preventing rehospitalization and other adverse results of poor transition planning. At the Federal Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services he was chief scientist in the Office of Research and later was senior clinical advisor and director of the Quality Improvement Organization program in the Office of Clinical Standards and Quality. He led transformation of Medicare's Quality Improvement Organization program from focusing on deficient providers to achieving national improvements in healthcare systems. He has received the Ernest A. Codman Award, the Distinguished Service Medal of the U.S. Public Health Service, and six Secretary's Distinguished Service Awards, and retired as Assistant Surgeon General.