Susan Bleasdale Casey, MD, FACP, FIDSA
Vice President and Chief of Quality and Safety
University of Maryland Medical Center
Susan Bleasdale Casey, MD, FACP, FIDSA, is responsible for overseeing and managing all aspects of quality and patient safety at the UMMC Downtown and Midtown campuses in close collaboration with the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM). Her responsibilities include leading patient quality, safety and infection prevention initiatives to help achieve excellence and champion a culture of transparency, continuous quality improvement and patient safety.
Dr. Casey, a practicing infectious disease physician and professor at UMSOM, brings an impressive 25 years of professional medical experience to the role. Her tenure at the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System (UI Health), where she served as chief quality officer, assistant vice chancellor for quality and patient safety, and professor of clinical medicine, has established her as a trusted leader and advisor.
As chief quality officer at UI Health from 2020-2024, Dr. Casey leveraged her background of healthcare leadership, policy and research experience to advance the quality and safety of care at UI Health. She had research funded through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to evaluate the transmission of infections in the healthcare setting. She served as the lead clinician and administrator for the University of Illinois System, providing guidance throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. In recognition of her leadership in the pandemic response and vaccine deployment at UI Health, Dr. Casey was awarded the 2021 Presidential Award and Medallion by the University of Illinois System.
As a professor of clinical medicine at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC), Dr. Casey developed significant quality-improvement initiatives related to central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI), catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI), surgical site infections, and sepsis; served as the physician lead for infection prevention and antimicrobial stewardship; directed initiatives to reduce infections and multidrug-resistant organisms and improve antimicrobial prescribing; and played a leading role in attaining the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) Antimicrobial Stewardship Center of Excellence designation. As assistant vice chancellor for quality and patient safety at UIC, Dr. Casey spearheaded the health system and university response to COVID-19. She restructured the quality and safety program at UI Health and integrated work with university counsel to transform UI Health into a learning organization to prevent patient harm.
Dr. Casey earned her Bachelor of Science in biology, graduating with departmental distinction from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and her medical degree from Rush Medical College in Chicago. She holds certifications and licensures from several professional medical organizations, including an American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) Diplomate and an ABIM Infectious Disease Diplomate. She has earned numerous honors throughout her prestigious career, including being named Woman Physician of the Year in Illinois by the American College of Physicians in 2021.