2018-up-and-comers-dr-chris-derienzo

For Dr. Chris DeRienzo, the "why" in healthcare is people. DeRienzo's experiences on the clinical side remind him why the administrative side is also important. "In a leadership role, I now get to spend my time empowering doctors, nurses and other people on our team to spend more of their time helping patients," he said. In which TV medical drama would you star? "ER" What musician do you dream of performing at your next birthday celebration? Brad Paisley What superhero are you? Professor Charles Francis Xavier (Professor X) As chief quality officer at Mission Health, DeRienzo spearheads initiatives for a system where 70% of patients are either uninsured or covered by Medicare or Medicaid. "I get to inspire, I get to coach, I get to spend every day figuring out how to improve, how to prevent harm. Leading in quality, there aren't a lot of things I'm directly accountable for," DeRienzo said. "We mostly lead through influence and empowering people. That's a lot of fun." Under his leadership, Mission Health has made significant improvementsin reductions in people leaving the emergency department without being seen, increases in ED volumes, reductions in length of stay and improvements in pain management. DeRienzo is only the fourth medical student to have been elected and re-elected to serve on the American Medical Associations board of trustees. "I get out of bed every day because it's my job to make sure everywhere we see patients, we are as good as we can be today, and we're figuring out how we can get even better tomorrow," he said.