Prerna Kahlon, BDS, MPAH, CPHQ
Dr. Prerna S. Kahlon is a healthcare management professional with over 16 years of experience in applying improvement science to deliver high quality clinical and operational outcomes at department, hospital and system level. In her various roles, she has driven the creation of an effective multi-disciplinary infrastructure for quality management by leveraging her clinical knowledge and experience with diverse hospital cultures; and complex organizations.
Presently, she is Vice President, Quality and Process Improvement at Grady Health System in Atlanta, Georgia. In this role, she is responsible for driving performance improvement initiatives and results across across Grady’s extensive continuum comprised of hospitals, post-acute care, home care, palliative care, hospice, ambulatory care, occupational health, rehabilitation, behavioral health, ambulance/transport services, fitness and wellness, occupational health, primary care network, clinically integrated network, and others.
Previously, she was Director, Quality Management and Performance Improvement at Boston Children’s Hospital. In that role, she was responsible for leading the implementation of an effective and sustainable hospital wide quality and performance improvement infrastructure; and hospital-wide quality measurement for improvement. Prior to that role, she developed the multidisciplinary Quality Program for the Department of Medicine at Boston Children's Hospital. She also led hospital and system-wide Radiology quality efforts at Massachusetts General Hospital and Partners HealthCare Boston focusing on standardization of clinical and operational processes; clinical quality outcomes measurement and improvement; and promotion of best practices. At Partners HealthCare, Dr. Kahlon was the recipient of two Excellence Awards for Leadership and Innovation; and Teamwork and Communication.
Dr. Kahlon has a Dental Surgery degree from Bangalore University, India and a Master’s in Public Health Administration from the Sawyer School of Management, Suffolk University, Boston. She is a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality®; a graduate of the yearlong Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Advanced Improvement Methods Course and is trained in Lean Six Sigma and High Reliability methodologies. Currently she serves on the Board of Directors Quality Committee for Franciscan Children's Hospital in Brighton, Massachusetts. She is also a member of the Boston Women's Leadership Council. She serves on the national Quality and Safety Leaders Committee for the Children’s Hospital Association and has served as a hospital judge for the Children's Hospital Association Pediatric Quality Award.
Dr. Kahlon is the Capstone Director and an advisor for the Harvard Medical School Southeast Asia Healthcare Leadership (HMS-SEAL) and China Hospital Leadership and Management (CLIMB-LEAD) programs. She also served on the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Association for Healthcare Quality and as the Regional Counselor for the Healthcare Division of the American Society for Quality. Dr. Kahlon has presented at numerous national and international conferences and is a co-author of numerous peer-reviewed publications in patient safety and healthcare quality.