In 1998, Dr. Kitts was appointed Vice-President of Medical Affairs and led the medical staff during a complex restructuring in which three hospitals and five large programs were merged into The Ottawa Hospital. He completed his master’s degree in business administration in 2001 and was named President and CEO of The Ottawa Hospital in February 2002, a position he held until his retirement on June 26, 2020. With more than I,000 beds, 12,000 employees and approximately 1,400 physicians, The Ottawa Hospital is recognized as one of the largest and most important research and teaching hospitals in Canada. Its research institute is one of the foremost institutes in Canada, involving more than 1500\ scientists, clinical investigators, trainees and staff.
Dr. Kitts’ inclusive team-oriented strategic leadership, passion for delivering quality patient-centered care, and the development and mentoring of emerging healthcare leaders, has been a central, unifying force in establishing and sustaining The Ottawa Hospital’s vision – To provide each patient with the world-class care, exceptional service and compassion that we would want for our loved ones. Dr. Kitts is known nationally for his focus and expertise in patient experience, performance measurement and physician engagement, which make him a sought-after advisor and inspirational speaker on these key topics in healthcare today.
He is a board-certified internist/hospitalist elected to fellowship in the inaugural class of fellows named by the Society of Hospital Medicine and a fellow of the American College of Physicians. His most recent clinical/academic appointment was with the Emory University’s School of Medicine faculty, where he practiced at one of the largest public hospitals in the country—Grady Memorial in Atlanta, Georgia.
Dr. Knight served in several senior executive roles for Palmetto Health (now Prisma Health), the most extensive healthcare system in South Carolina, after their merger with Greenville Health System. As the SVP for Ambulatory Services, he oversaw Palmetto Health’s employed physician network and ambulatory services division (rehab, lab, home health, hospice care, and imaging), and as the Chief Physician and Integration Officer, he helped to develop and manage their clinically integrated network (the Palmetto Health Quality Collaborative, now known as Prisma’sInVio Health Network). This network has become the largest clinically integrated network in the state, with more than 1000 participating providers.
At Coker Group, a national healthcare advisory firm, Dr. Knight served as a Senior VP and the Chief Medical Officer for Coker Group. He developed a suite of Services (Value Pathtm ) designed to smooth the transition for healthcare organizations from a volume to a value business model. He also oversaw Coker’s Revenue and Quality Integrity (RQI) services, which offered expert services in coding, compliance, and clinical documentation to healthcare organizations of all types. Mac Knight is familiar with the management and operations of rural hospitals, community hospitals, public hospitals, large health systems (including academic medical centers), and physician practices of all types and specialties.
Finally, Dr. Knight’s overarching belief is that healthcare delivery must improve the value (defined as quality per unit of cost) to the patients served. One of the cornerstones in making this happen is for every hospital and physician practice to understand and adopt the core methodology developed and promoted by the IHO. If is his belief that clinical quality, patient satisfaction, staff satisfaction, and financial performance can all be improved in this way. As a member of the IHO board and its senior executive team he is committed to making this happen.
Dr. Lahita is the author or editor of more than 16 books and 150 scientific publications in autoimmunity. He is the editor of the standard textbook in its 6th edition called Lahita’s Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and was the senior editor of the Textbook of Autoimmunity and co-editor of the Yearbook of Rheumatology. He is also the author of several books for lay audiences: Lupus: Q&A; Autoimmunity in Women, the way the body betrays itself; and finally, Immunity Strong (released Jan 5, 2022).
Dr. Lahita is a Professor of Medicine at the new Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine. He proudly served as an Associate Professor in immunology for 11 years in the legendary Henry G. Kunkel laboratory at Rockefeller University in New York City. While at Rockefeller, he was an adjunct professor at Weill-Cornell Medical School, Hospital for Special Surgery, and he worked in rheumatology with Dr. Charles Christian. Dr. Lahita also worked in the laboratory of Dr. Lewis Thomas at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He was also an associate Professor at Columbia University for over a decade. Before his current work, Dr. Lahita was Chair of Medicine at Saint Joseph Medical Center, Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, and Jersey City Medical Center and was Division Director of Rheumatic Disease for many years at St. Luke’s Roosevelt Hospital in New York City. He also served as Division Chief of Rheumatology at Saint Vincent Hospital in New York City and as a professor at NYMC. He has trained countless medical students, residents, and fellows during his career, spanning over 50 years.
Dr. Lahita reviews about 15 medical journals and is on the editorial boards of three. He has also been an associate editor for the Lupus International Journal since 2004.
Dr. Lahita has been a volunteer emergency responder since 1990 and was featured in the recent documentary Memory Box: Echoes of 9/11. Dr Lahita was present during the 911 attacks on America and is featured in many works like the “Faces of Ground Zero” and others. He has been the volunteer medical director of the Village of Ridgewood, NJ (since 1990) and medical director of the Borough of Saddle River, NJ.
Media worldwide, including Reuters, Newsmax, Fox Business, Fox News, NBC Now, MSNBC, EWTN, CBSN, LxNBC, Newsnation, and other national and international media constantly consult Dr. Lahita, an expert on immunity, autoimmune disease, and rheumatic disease.
Dr. Litvak is an author of more than 60 publications in the areas of operations management in healthcare delivery organizations. He was the editor of The Joint Commission’s patient flow books “Managing Patient Flow in Hospitals: Strategies and Solutions”, 2nd Edition and “Optimizing Patient Flow: Advanced Strategies for Managing Variability to Enhance Access, Quality, and Safety” as well as the leader of the organization’s first patient flow seminars. He was a member of the Institute of Medicine (currently the National Academy of Medicine) Committees “The Future of Emergency Care in the United States Health System”, “The Learning Health Care System in America” and “Optimizing Scheduling in Health Care.” Dr. Litvak also served as a member of the “National Advisory Committee to the American Hospital Association for Improving Quality, Patient Safety and Performance”. Currently, he serves on the Executive Leadership Council, Strategic Innovation Engine, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Since 1995 he has led the development and practical application of innovative approaches for managing patient flow variability (introduced by him and Dr. Long) for cost reduction and quality improvement in health care delivery systems. Application of these approaches has resulted in significant quality improvement and multimillion-dollar improvements in the margins for every hospital that has applied them. He is also Principal Investigator in many hospital and hospital systems operations improvement projects. These include CMS sponsored initiative “Partnership for Patients” in NJ and nationwide patient flow initiative in Scotland.
