Dr. Carrie Nelson is a board-certified Family Physician who has been practicing for 15 years in the Western Chicago suburbs. She first served as Medical Director for her practice, affiliated with Central DuPage Hospital (CDH) then went on to Medical Director for Quality for Central DuPage Hospital and its affiliated physician practices. In addition to being passionate about medicine, she brings expertise in the application of quality improvement tools to both physician practice and hospital system design. Due to such interest in issues of medical leadership and community health, she obtained a Masters Degree in Administrative Medicine and Population Health from the University of Wisconsin in 2002. Her current role is as Program Director of the Rush-Copley Family Medicine Residency Program.
Dr. Nelson participated in the Institute for Healthcare Improvement National Collaborative for Improving Chronic Illness Care (Chronic II), successfully implementing the Chronic Care Model in CDH affiliated practices. These practices went on to be the first physician group in the Nation to receive JCAHO Disease Specific Care Certification for Diabetes. She later led a successful effort to achieve Certification in Asthma for Central DuPage Hospital and served as Director of the Chicago Regional Diabetes Collaborative, a Chronic Care Model spread initiative. As a result Dr. Nelson has been invited to speak, sharing success factors with other physician groups around the country who are involved in similar quality improvement efforts.
Dr. Nelson believes Family Physicians are ideally suited to play a leadership role in the medical quality and patient safety movement and is therefore committed to such a pursuit. This commitment is demonstrated through her board member roles for the American Academy of Family Physicians and the Institute of Medicine of Chicago as well as currently serving as Chair-Elect of the Chicago Patient Safety Forum.
