RHHS Alumni

It’s Okay!💫

HAPPY EASTER 🐣🐰🐇

Haytham Kaafarani, MD, MPH, FACS, FSIS, FRCSEd (Hon) is a Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical
School, the system-level Quality Director of Trauma & Emergency Surgery at Mass General Brigham and
the Trauma Medical Director at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). Between 2022 and 2023, Dr.
Kaafarani served as the Chief Patient Safety Officer of The Joint Commission. In that role, he was the
president’s designee to prioritize patient safety concerns at Joint Commission-accredited health care
organizations, provided oversight and medical expertise for the Office of Quality and Patient Safety, and
oversaw data management and analysis related to the Sentinel Event Database. His previous roles
include The MGH Hospital-wide Director of Safety & Quality, the Director of the MGH Center for
Outcomes & Patient Safety in Surgery (COMPASS) and the Director of the MGH Wound Center. Dr.
Kaafarani is a recognized authority and speaker with more than 500 published peer-reviewed
manuscripts and textbook chapters with a focus on surgical patient safety from intake to discharge,
benchmarking quality care, peer support, and the use of artificial intelligence for risk modeling and
predicting outcomes. He is the author of the textbook “Principles of Perioperative Safety & Efficiency”.
He has won numerous awards, including a nomination to the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, the Robert L.
Wears Patient Safety Leadership National Award and the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
Honorary Fellowship Ad Hominem. Dr. Kaafarani received his Master of Public Health from Harvard
University and his doctorate from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. He holds certifications in
surgery and surgical critical care from the American Board of Surgery