Henry Ford Health

Our Henry Ford Hospital nursing excellence council recently delivered over 1,000 gently used scrubs – generously donated by our team members - to the Pope Francis Center in Detroit! These scrubs will support individuals in need, offering clean scrubs to wear while their own items are being freshly laundered at the center. A special thank you to Madelyn Torakis, our director of nursing excellence & Magnet program, for organizing this effort to help support our local community! We’d also like to recognize Dr. William Conway, former Henry Ford Medical Group CEO, who volunteers at the center and helped connect our Detroit hospital nursing team to make this donation possible.

We’re pleased to announce our new regional chief medical officers - Dr. Antonio Bonfiglio and Dr. Manu Malhotra! 👏 📍East Region Dr. Bonfiglio, chief medical officer of Henry Ford Warren and Madison Heights Hospitals, will serve as regional chief medical officer, east region. He’ll continue to oversee physician operations for Warren and Madison Heights and partner with the local chief medical officers at our St. John, River District, Macomb and Genesys hospitals. 📍West Region Dr. Malhotra, chief medical officer of Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital, will serve as regional chief medical officer, west region. He’ll continue to oversee physician operations for West Bloomfield and partner with the local chief medical officers at our Jackson, Rochester, Wyandotte and Providence Novi and Southfield hospitals. Together, Drs. Bonfiglio and Malhotra will lead clinical initiatives to improve patient services, quality and safety outcomes, physician alignment and satisfaction, as well as build strong relationships with physicians and other partners in the regions. Congratulations!

As medicine becomes more precise, leaders in pharmacy are playing a pivotal role in integrating genomic tools into everyday clinical care. Ericka Ridgeway, PharmD, BCACP, CDCES, BC-ADM, director of our Pharmacy, Population Health and Ambulatory Clinical Services, shared with Becker's Healthcare how pharmacogenomics integrated into pharmacy operations is helping providers identify patients who may benefit from testing in oncology, cardiology, primary care and behavioral health. "For example, in GI oncology, we’ve added pharmacogenomic testing to all treatment plans involving certain chemotherapy drugs. This helps us identify patients with an enzyme deficiency that could make those drugs life-threatening. In cardiology, patients who have suffered a heart attack can undergo pharmacogenomic testing to better personalize their antiplatelet therapy, reducing the risks of bleeding and drug failure and improving access to high-cost medications," she said. Read more in Becker's: https://bit.ly/4mtBdSi

Our team members at Henry Ford Providence Southfield Hospital and Henry Ford Providence Novi Hospital gave a very warm welcome to Shanna Johnson. Now in the role of president of our West Region and hospital president for Henry Ford Providence Southfield and Novi hospitals, Shanna previously served as the president and interim president of Henry Ford West Bloomfield and Macomb hospitals, respectively. The hospitals’ welcome events brought together hospital leaders and team members to celebrate this new chapter and show support for Shanna. With her vision and commitment to advancing care, we look forward to the continued impact she’ll make across our hospitals and the communities we serve.

Congratulations to Donna Summers, our Chief Nursing Informatics Officer, for being recognized on Crain's Detroit Business 2025 list of Notable Leaders in Health Care Technology! 👏 Selected by a team of Crain's editors, honorees were evaluated based upon their contributions to improving patient care through the integration of technology with health services. Donna spearheaded the rollout of Epic Rover on iPhones for acute care nurses, which increased medication scanning compliance from 95% to 98% and reduced documentation time from 105 minutes to just to 26 minutes. In addition, she implemented pump integration, expanded virtual acute care and continues to drive innovation through her leadership in professional organizations and advancing nursing informatics. Read more from Crain's Detroit Business: https://bit.ly/3K944O8

Henry Ford Innovations recently hosted a celebratory ceremony honoring 23 outstanding high school students from 16 schools across Michigan who completed our 2025 Department of Surgery High School Summer Internship Program! Led by Dr. Ikenna Okereke, vice chair of our Department of Surgery, and coordinated by Wilma J. Ruffin M.Ed, BS BA, the program has impacted more than 1,400 students since its inception. This year was our most successful yet, with 402 students participating in the school program and 23 advancing to the internship. Over the course of 10 weeks, students engaged in lectures, surgical simulations and hands-on experience and confidence in pursing medical careers. Many past students are now thriving in college and medical school, and we are excited to one day welcome back future alumni as the next generation of medical leaders! 💡

From registered nurses and nurse practitioners to clinical educators, we are proud to recognize our Henry Ford Jackson Hospital team members Amy Winget, Brooke Blair and Jessica Hull for being named the 2025 Health Care Angels by Jackson Magazine. Their compassion, purpose-driven care and dedication to excellence exemplifies our commitment to improve the health and well-being of our community. Congratulations! If you’re interested in a career on our team, visit henryford.com/careers.

When Matthew Jean, our director of the neurosurgical ICU and acute stroke neurosurgical stepdown unit at Henry Ford Hospital, saw a critical equipment issue impacting care for patients with hydrocephalus or brain bleeds, he worked to find a solution. Inspired by how Lego blocks snap together, he came up with an idea to better secure the connection between the external ventricular drain (or EVD, which is used to monitor pressure in the brain) and the transducer. Previously, this connection could sometimes loosen, increasing the risk of infection. In collaboration with Henry Ford Innovations, that Lego-inspired idea was transformed into a 3D-printed clip that helps prevent infections, avoids unnecessary procedures and reduces the need to replace costly specialized equipment. Way to go team!

We’re outpacing a national trend and leading the way in safer heart care with a less invasive approach to opening blocked heart arteries — giving our patients a more comfortable experience and better outcomes. More than 75% of our percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) are performed using radial access, which threads a catheter through the wrist instead of the groin. That compares to a national average of 57.5%. This approach lowers the risk of bleeding, allows patients to recover and move sooner and has even been linked to improved survival in heart attack patients. “Both for patient safety and patient experience, we have long been convinced that radial access, when feasible, is the way to go.” says Dr. Herb Aronow, our interventional cardiologist and medical director of heart and vascular services.

We're proud to share that Dr. Bashar Yalldo has been elected as the 77th president of the Michigan Academy of Family Physicians, the state’s largest association of specialty physicians. Dr. Yalldo is also dedicated to shaping the next generation of physicians through his teaching at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. Join us in congratulating Dr. Yalldo on this achievement! 👏