Idle rooms, rigid block schedules, manual workflows, and limited visibility into available OR time are challenges that perioperative leaders across the country are navigating every day. The question is: what does it actually look like when a team solves them?
In this one-hour session, leaders from three health systems share their stories directly: the operational problems they were facing, what they changed, and the results that followed.
You’ll hear from:
These are peer conversations: candid, specific, and grounded in the realities of running surgical services today.
Melanie B. Burgess, Vice President Perioperative Services and Executive Director of the Center for Perioperative Medicine, The University of Tennessee Medical Center
Melanie B. Burgess oversees the strategy, management, operations, and financial performance of all perioperative and endoscopy services at the University of Tennessee Medical Center, a 715-bed hospital and the only Level I Trauma Center serving East Tennessee, Southeast Kentucky, and Western North Carolina. Under her leadership, UT Medical Center operates 36 operating rooms, a hospital-based ambulatory surgery centers, an Endoscopy Center, and three JV ASCs, serving over 28,000 surgical procedures annually. Ms. Burgess holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Furman University and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Pennsylvania State University.
Jay E. de los Reyes, MSHA, MBA, Chief Operating Officer, McLaren Greater Lansing
Jay E. De Los Reyes, MSHA, MBA serves as Chief Operating Officer at McLaren Greater Lansing, where he has championed operational excellence and data-driven decision-making across perioperative services. He is passionate about leveraging innovation and collaborative partnerships to unlock operational capacity, enhance surgeon satisfaction, and improve patient access to timely surgical care.
Carlo Hallak, MD, Physician Informatics Executive, San Juan Regional Medical Center
Dr. Carlo Hallak serves as Physician Informatics Executive at San Juan Regional Medical Center, where he bridges clinical operations and health IT to drive digital transformation. With his dual perspective as both a physician and informatics leader, Dr. Hallak has championed data-driven operational improvements across multiple health systems throughout his career. At SJRMC, he led the successful implementation of iQueue for Operating Rooms through rigorous data validation and physician engagement.
John Gaede, CPHIMS, MLS (ASCP), Chief Information Officer, San Juan Regional Medical Center
John Gaede serves as Chief Information Officer at San Juan Regional Medical Center, bringing a unique frontline healthcare perspective from his background as a former laboratory medical technologist. As CIO, he champions a “save lives and innovate” philosophy while leading the organization’s digital transformation initiatives, including bringing IT operations back in-house and managing multiple concurrent technology implementations. His partnership with clinical leadership has been instrumental in driving rapid technology adoption and operational excellence across SJRMC.
