50 Most Influential Physician Executives – 2016
Rank: 50
David Bailey
President and CEO, Nemours
Dr. David Bailey says eliminating waste is the best way he knows of making better care available to more children and families. So he championed adoption of the Lean system of continuous improvement at all four campuses of the Nemours Children's Health System after becoming CEO in 2006. All employees and the 600 physicians who practice at the system's hospitals in Wilmington, Del., and Orlando, Fla., and outpatient centers in Jacksonville and Pensacola, Fla., have adopted it into their daily routines, Bailey said, and it's making a difference in the patient experience. A pediatric gastroenterologist, Bailey, now 62, set the tone of his tenure upon becoming the first new chief executive at the Nemours Foundation in 25 years. As he said early on, "Everything we do must be for the child. If it's not, then we need to reconsider why we are doing it."