Inova Health System's President and CEO, J. Stephen Jones, MD, FACS, awarded for addressing both the quality and affordability of healthcare.

WASHINGTON,  Dec. 6, 2022 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The Steven Schroeder Award for Outstanding Healthcare CEO was presented at The Leapfrog Group's annual meeting. This year's recipient was J. Stephen Jones, MD, FACS, President and CEO of Inova Health System, Northern Virginia's nonprofit healthcare system.

The award was created by Costs of Care, a leading nonprofit dedicated to cultivating change agents who will lead the creation of a more affordable and equitable health system, in conjunction with The Leapfrog Group, the nation's leading advocate for patient safety and transparency. The award recognizes a hospital and/or health system CEO who has demonstrated courageous and ethical leadership addressing the twin issues of affordability and quality of health care in their community.

"Affordability is one of the most important aspects of health care for patients, and a health system cannot claim to deliver great health care if they are not doing all they can to ensure patients are able to access and afford health services," said Chris Moriates, MD, Executive Director of Costs of Care. "We created this award to encourage positive examples of leadership toward a more equitable and affordable health system."
Leah Binder, President and CEO of The Leapfrog Group, stated, "We are proud to honor Dr. Jones for his leadership at Inova Health System. Inova is one of the only systems in the country that consistently earns straight As across all its hospitals for patient safety. That means Dr. Jones leads with the highest standards and makes patients the priority."

The Outstanding Healthcare CEO award is named in honor of Steven Schroeder, MD, Distinguished Professor of Health and Health Care at the University of California San Francisco and former President and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Dr. Schroeder has spent five decades inspiring and mentoring leaders to forcefully advocate for better quality and more affordable health care, and he has inspired leaders of both Costs of Care and The Leapfrog Group.

Dr. Schroeder stated, "At a time when the U.S. health care system is under great stress, Dr. Jones and the Inova Health System that he leads show that it is possible to be both responsive to community needs, as well as responsible stewards of community resources. We hope that his work will inspire other health care institutions to be similarly visionary and courageous."

Central to Dr. Jones's leadership over the past two years is his commitment to driving Inova's transformation journey, while adapting to the short and long-term impacts of the pandemic. To meet the growing healthcare needs and challenges in the community, Dr. Jones understands that Inova must evolve and excel to ensure greater access to seamless, high-quality, value-based, and patient-centered care for its patients. His steady and intentional leadership has not only continued to put Inova on a transformative path to success, but most importantly has demonstrated to the Inova team and the communities they serve that Inova is committed to providing high-quality, affordable care for all.

"It is my distinct honor to accept this truly meaningful award, and to do so on behalf of Inova's more than 20,000 team members who provide world-class care to every patient in every community we are privileged to serve," said Dr. Jones. "Accessible, affordable, and exceptional patient care is at the center of what we do at Inova, and I am exceedingly proud to lead this incredible team of leaders who are relentlessly focused on meeting our mission for the communities we serve today, tomorrow, and for years to come."

This year marks the 5th annual Steven Schroeder Award for Outstanding Healthcare CEO. Past recipients of the award include Joanne M. Conroy, MD, CEO and President of Dartmouth Health in New Hampshire; Mr. Carl S. Armato, President and CEO of Novant Health in North Carolina; Mr. John A. DiAngelo, former President and CEO of Inspira Health in New Jersey; and Gary S. Kaplan, MD, former Chairman and CEO of Virginia Mason in Seattle, Washington.

About Costs of Care

Costs of Care is a nonprofit organization dedicated to cultivating change agents who will lead the creation of a more affordable and equitable health system. Since 2009, Costs of Care has collected personal accounts from physicians, nurses, and patients all over the United States that illustrate routine and high-yield opportunities to improve the value of care delivery. Costs of Care directs the STARS program for medical students - catalyzing grassroots, student-led initiatives to advance health care value in medical education and practice. Costs of Care has also created widely adopted and enduring resources to educate medical trainees and clinicians about how to address healthcare costs and provide high-value care, including the textbook Understanding Value-Based Healthcare, the "COST" framework for designing value improvement projects, multiple workshops, and free, CME-approved video modules.

In December 2019, Costs of Care launched the Affordability Moonshot - envisioning a world in which "no one has to choose between their life and their life-savings" – informed by an Affordability Framework for Health Systems and paired with an Affordability Accelerator in September 2021 with the subsequent publication "The Affordability Accelerator: A Road Map to Improve Patient Out-of-Pocket Costs and Trustworthiness in Health Care" in NEJM Catalyst.
Connect at http://costsofcare.org, be a part of the Moonshot at moonshot.costsofcare.org, and follow on Twitter/Instagram @CostsOfCare.

About The Leapfrog Group

Founded in 2000 by large employers and other purchasers, The Leapfrog Group is a national nonprofit organization driving a movement for giant leaps for patient safety. The flagship Leapfrog Hospital Survey and new Leapfrog Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) Survey collect and transparently report hospital and ASC performance, empowering purchasers to find the highest-value care and giving consumers the lifesaving information they need to make informed decisions. The Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade, Leapfrog's other main initiative, assigns letter grades to hospitals based on their record of patient safety, helping consumers protect themselves and their families from errors, injuries, accidents, and infections. For more, follow us on Twitter and Facebook, and sign up for our newsletter.

Media Contact

September Wallingford, Costs of Care, 1 732-778-3227, [email protected]

SOURCE Costs of Care