#IamMGH – Meet Dr. Jeff Powis

Originally published on August 20, 2019.

#IamMGH tells the story of our people. Meet Dr. Jeff Powis. 

Dr. Powis started as a doctor at MGH in 2006, and has since stepped into other roles as the Medical Director of Operational Excellence and Innovation, and Medical Director of Infection Control.

“There’s probably a whole bunch of things that make somebody go into healthcare. But for me, at 18-years-old, I had my own experiences with healthcare. It’s amazing when I ask colleagues why, it’s often the same story–that they or their family members had a meaningful experience. I remember being sick and this internist came in and just nailed the diagnosis. I have to say, I was just so impressed with how well he handled the situation. He immediately got to the solution, and I thought ‘That is the coolest thing, that he knows all that stuff. I want to do that.’ That’s why I ended up going into medicine.

If you would’ve asked me what the most rewarding part of my job was in 2006 when I started at MGH, I probably would have answered it in a different way than I might today. There’s always the reward of figuring out what’s wrong with somebody and knowing how to fix a problem when no one else knows how, and then hearing a thank you from the family or the patient. I still, of course, love hearing that from patients, but now, I have realized more now I can also make an impact in different ways–by organizing people in a certain way to achieve a broader goal.

For me, problem solving with system-based solutions that lead to sustained improvement makes me feel the most satisfied in my administrative roles. For example, we developed the Antibiotic Stewardship team in 2009–we didn’t have one and there was a big problem with antibiotic overuse. We built a program, and we trained everybody. We now have an amazing culture at MGH where we don’t overuse antibiotics. There were 111 hospital-acquired C-Difficile cases in 2008, and so far this year, we’ve had 4! The stewardship program doesn’t help just one patient, but anyone we care for at the hospital.”