This week we celebrate National Healthcare Diversity Week, a time to acknowledge the importance of inclusion in creating a more equitable healthcare system. To mark this occasion, Allison Meshnick, Partner at Curative Executive & Academic Search, sat down for a fascinating conversation with Dr. Husnain Kermalli, Chief Medical Officer at Saint Mary's Hospital in Connecticut.
View the full interview below
Husnain Kermalli, M.D. serves as Chief Medical Officer at Saint Mary’s Hospital in Waterbury, Connecticut, part of Trinity Health Of New England, an integrated healthcare delivery system that is a member of Trinity Health in Livonia, Michigan, one of the largest multi-institutional Catholic healthcare delivery systems in the nation serving communities in 22 states.
Dr. Kermalli came on board as Chief Medical Officer in 2021. Prior to joining Saint Mary’s, he served as Associate Director of the Hospitalist Program at Saint Francis Hospital in Hartford, also a member of Trinity Health Of New England, as well as fulfilling the role of medical director of both the step-down unit and several resident floors.
Dr. Kermalli received his Honors Bachelor of Science degree in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Toronto and a Master of Science degree in Molecular and Cell Biology from Quinnipiac University before earning his Medical Degree from the University of Connecticut. Dr. Kermalli conducted his Internal Medicine Residency at the University of Connecticut.
In addition to his passion for clinical medicine, Dr. Kermalli is very interested in quality improvement. As an intern, he presented a quality improvement project in London, England, where he met with the Chief Medical Officer of Saint Francis Hospital and was introduced to the administrative aspect of medicine. He became more involved with quality improvement projects for the Hospitalist program while serving as an ICU resident.
“I recognized along the way that it takes perspective to get to solutions – be it clinical or operational,” said Kermalli. “We need to see things through the eye of the beholder to enact change and that is true at the patient level as well as at the executive level.”
