Dale W. Bratzler, DO, MPH, is the Dean of the Hudson College of Public Health; Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Administration and Policy; and Professor in the College of Medicine at the University of Oklahoma (OU) Health Sciences Center. He assumed the role of Chief COVID Officer for the University of Oklahoma in June of 2020. He also serves as the Chief Quality Officer for the three-hospital health system and faculty practice at OU Health. Dr. Bratzler has served two terms as president of the American Health Quality Association and was appointed to the National Advisory Council for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality from 2005-2008 by then HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt.
For more than 20 years, Dr. Bratzler has participated in research on prevention of surgical infections and on adult vaccination. He was appointed to the CDC’s Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee by then HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and subsequently spent a year as a Senior Policy Advisor for the CDC. He has given more than 600 lectures nationally on health care quality topics with a particular emphasis on prevention of surgical site infections and adult vaccination. He has published more than 100 manuscripts in journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, Journals of the American Medical Association, Health Affairs, and others. Board certified in internal medicine, Dr. Bratzler is a Master Fellow of the American College of Osteopathic Internists and a Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
Education:
- MPH, Health Administration and Policy, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, 1996
- Internal Medicine Residency, Oklahoma State University College of Medicine, 1981–1985
- DO, Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences, 1981
- BS, Biology, University of Central Missouri, 1977
Appointments:
- Professor and Chair, Department of Health Administration and Policy, Hudson College of Public Health, 2019–present
- Professor of Medicine, College of Medicine, 2012–present
- University Chief COVID Officer, June 2020 – present
- Chief Quality Officer, OU Health, 2012–present
- Hospital Advisory Council, Oklahoma State Department of Health, 2012–present
- Member, Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010–2013
- Member, National Advisory Council, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2001–2011
- President and CEO, and Medical Director, Oklahoma Foundation for Medical Quality, 2001–2011
- President, American Health Quality Association, 2003–2005 and 2010–2011
Teaching:
- HAP 5883 Healthcare Quality Management
- HAP 5960 Directed Reading
Clinical/Research Interests:
- Development and maintenance of national performance measures used to profile and publicly report metrics on quality of inpatient and outpatient health care
- Evidence-based management of hospitalized patients
- Prevention of surgical complications, and in particular evidence-based approaches to prevention of surgical site infections
- Use of administrative data to profile hospital outcomes of care (infection, mortality)
- Use of information technology to improve the quality of health care
- Evaluation of the relationship between surgical processes of care and patient outcomes
- Evaluation of the relationship between pneumonia processes of care and patient outcomes
- Use of Medicare claims to profile hospital rate of surgical site infections
- Population-based surveillance for venous thromboembolic disease
- Development of national guidelines for prevention of surgical site infections
Select Publications:
Link to Dr. Bratzler's current publications
Select publications:
- Wendelboe, Aaron; Campbell, Janis; Ding, Kai; Bratzler, Dale; Beckman, Michele; Reyes, Nimia; Raskob, Gary. Incidence of Venous Thromboembolism in a Racially Diverse Population of Oklahoma County, Oklahoma. Thromb Haemost. 2021;121(6):816-825. doi:10.1055/s-0040-1722189
- Eby, Joshua; Lane, Michael; Horberg, Michael; Gentry, Clare; Coffin, Susan; Ray, Amy; Sheridan, Kathleen; Bratzler, Dale; Wheeler, David; Sarumi, Molade; Barlam, Tamar; Kim, Thomas; Rodriguez, Andres; Nahass, Ronald. How Do You Measure Up: Quality Measurement for Improving Patient Care and Establishing the Value of Infectious Diseases Specialists. Clin Infect Dis. 2019;68(11):1946-1951. doi:10.1093/cid/ciy814
- Balch, Aubrey; Wendelboe, Aaron; Vesely, Sara; Bratzler, Dale. Antibiotic prophylaxis for surgical site infections as a risk factor for infection with Clostridium difficile. PLoS One. 2017;12(6):e0179117. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0179117