Durham, N.C. (May 8, 2017) – The Pharmacy Quality Solutions (PQS) Board of Directors announced on Monday that it has unanimously selected Jeff Newell to lead the organization as its next CEO, effective May 15, 2017.
Newell brings to PQS a strong track record of leadership and quality improvement to drive better patient outcomes within multiple healthcare settings, including community pharmacy, long-term care and within a quality improvement organization. In his new role, Newell will be responsible for the organization’s growth strategy and deployment of resources to achieve PQS’s goals.
“The board is pleased to appoint a leader with such deep industry knowledge,” said David Medvedeff, chairman of the PQS Board of Directors, who led the search.
With the support of two world-class organizations, the Pharmacy Quality Alliance (PQA) and Premier Inc., PQS connects medication use stakeholders to actionable, quality information in a consistent and reliable fashion, allowing them to move more quickly from measurement to improvement. Its industry-leading platform, EQuIPP, provides consistent and reliable measurement and reporting on key medication use quality measures, including those addressing medication adherence and patient safety, and make measurement insights actionable, available and easy to understand.
Laura Cranston, PQA’s executive director, said “Newell has the strategic agility, business acumen, vision and mission-driven orientation we need to continue our growth.”
Newell most recently served as Vice President of Pharmacy Administration and Compliance for Sears Holding Company with responsibility for managed care, pharmacy systems, clinical pharmacy, pharmacy operations, regulatory and compliance as well as digital patient engagement. Newell began his pharmacy career in family-owned and operated pharmacies in New York and has been involved in various roles across the profession, including Chairman of the Rhode Island Board of Pharmacy, President of the Rhode Island Pharmacists Association, and several other advisory boards.
“I’m humbled and excited for the opportunity to lead this successful and growing organization of creative, dedicated and talented professionals,” Newell said.
The PQS Board of Directors acknowledges the strong contribution made to the growth and continuity of its business during the interim period while the search was ongoing. Mark Conklin, who served as interim president of PQS, will continue to serve on the senior leadership team at PQS.
About Pharmacy Quality Solutions (PQS)
Pharmacy Quality Solutions (PQS), the leading provider of performance management services for payer and pharmacy organizations, delivers the quality insights and guidance necessary to support its customers’ efforts to optimize the quality of medication use for the populations they serve. PQS is a joint venture of the Pharmacy Quality Alliance (PQA) and Premier Inc. PQA is a primary developer of medication use quality measures (www.PQAalliance.org). Premier is a leading healthcare improvement company, uniting an alliance of approximately 3,750 U.S. hospitals and more than 130,000 other provider organizations (www.premierinc.com). For more information, please visit www.pharmacyquality.com.
