Spectrum Health Announces Chief Clinical Systems Integration and Improvement Officer

James M. Tucci, MD, MMM, has been named chief clinical systems integration and improvement officer, Spectrum Health System. Dr. Tucci will assume this newly created position for the organization on July 1, 2013.

“Spectrum Health continues to put organizational structures in place that allow us to adapt to the changing landscape of health care reform,” said Richard C. Breon, President & CEO, Spectrum Health. “Dr. Tucci will use his extensive experience in clinical medicine, past leadership of managed care organizations and large scale quality, safety and risk programs, as well as his development of Lean Six Sigma approaches to the improvement of health care delivery, to create a systemwide platform for clinical integration.”

In this role, Dr. Tucci and his team will support the quality, safety, care management, clinical informatics, clinical risk reduction, patient experience and process improvement areas. Dr. Tucci is the founding president of Spectrum Health Medical Group (SHMG). He is credited for creating and building the group practice, which grew from 53 providers in 2008 to nearly 700 providers today.

“Our concerns for the health of our patients and members, and the shift to payment for value rather than volumes, demand that we use new techniques such as safety science, lean thinking and systems thinking across our care management programs,” said James M. Tucci, president, Spectrum Health Medical Group.

Dr. Tucci has more than 25 years of broad health care leadership experience in integrated health systems. He joined Spectrum Health in 2007 as vice president of medical affairs and quality for Spectrum Health Hospital Group. Before joining Spectrum Health, he was senior vice president and chief medical officer for the St. John Health System in Detroit. He served as vice president of quality and patient safety for the Henry Ford Health System and Henry Ford Medical Group in Detroit. He also was regional director for Aetna and executive director of the Lovelace Health Plan in Albuquerque, N.M. He began his medical career at the Navy Regional Medical Center in Jacksonville, Fla. Dr. Tucci also practiced as a neurologist and a sleep disorders specialist with the Ochsner Clinic in Louisiana, the Lovelace Clinic and the Henry Ford Medical Group.

Spectrum Health will begin a search process for a new president of The Medical Group.

Spectrum Health is a not-for-profit health system in West Michigan offering a full continuum of care through the Spectrum Health Hospital Group, which is comprised of nine hospitals including Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital, a state of the art children’s hospital that opened in January 2011, and 140 service sites; the Spectrum Health Medical Group and West Michigan Heart, physician groups totaling more than 700 providers; and Priority Health, a health plan with 600,000 members. Spectrum Health is West Michigan’s largest employer with 19,000 employees. The organization provided $204 million in community benefit during its 2012 fiscal year.