Rick van Pelt

Dr. Rick van Pelt has over three decades of experience as a board-certified anesthesiologist and leader in healthcare transformation. Throughout his career, he has pioneered innovative approaches to improving clinical performance, quality, and patient safety, working with frontline-empowered teams to redesign healthcare delivery. His expertise spans system-based performance improvement, implementation science, and clinical variation management to improve structure, processes, and outcomes across health systems. He is also a pioneer of peer support integration and creating solutions to the root causes of burnout faced by healthcare providers. Of note is his deep experience and expertise in assisting leading healthcare systems in transforming acute inpatient and perioperative care models into integrated interprofessional services that achieve clinical excellence and elevate the care experience for patients, families and caregivers. Currently serving as the Chief Clinical Transformation Officer at UAB Medicine, Dr. van Pelt is known for facilitating sustained change in complex healthcare environments with his committed clinical transformation team. Prior to joining UAB Medicine, Dr. van Pelt was an Associate Clinical Principal with The Chartis Group and led numerous performance improvement initiatives with leading US hospital systems in clinical system assessment and redesign; he has supported and led service transformation initiatives in perioperative, acute inpatient care and hospital medicine. Dr. van Pelt has more than 20 years of experience providing advisory services for national and international health systems and is a frequent speaker on quality and patient safety worldwide. Dr. van Pelt served for five years as the Director for Global Programs at Partners Healthcare International (PHI), the international division for Partners Healthcare System and its founding Harvard affiliated teaching hospitals, Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. van Pelt served on the clinical faculty at Harvard Medical School and worked at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and served in a variety of clinical and operations leadership roles in other public and private sectors. He has also served as a faculty member at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and The Dartmouth Institute Microsystems Academy (TDIMA). Dr. van Pelt is a board-certified anesthesiologist. He completed his anesthesia residency and fellowship at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School and holds his medical degree from the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He received his Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, from Amherst College. When he is not actively engaged in his clinical transformation role, Dr. van Pelt enjoys spending time with his family, going for long walks with his wife, cycling, kayaking, and traveling the globe, by airplane of course!