Lee Named Medical Director of Stroke Care

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 22, 2013) -- Dr. Jessica D. Lee has been named UK HealthCare Medical Director of Stroke Care. Dr. Lee assumes the responsibilities formerly held by Dr. Michael Dobbs.

In her new role, Dr. Lee will work with members of the enterprise stroke leadership team on maintaining compliance with stroke core measures, stroke center certification, and other quality initiatives in stroke care.

Over the last three years, the stroke program has excelled in core measure compliance to receive the American Heart Association’s Gold Plus Award 3 times for quality of care, underwent a successful Primary Stroke Center recertification with The Joint Commission, and has improved to be a national leader in stroke survival, length of stay, and readmission. 

"We feel strongly that Dr. Lee has the skills to ensure a smooth transition as we continue to focus on our mission – improving the stroke care UK HealthCare provides," said Dobbs, interim chair of the UK Department of Neurology.   

Lee attended the University of Mississippi School of Medicine and is a fellowship-trained vascular neurologist with a strong background in patient safety. Since 2009, she has been actively involved in the American Academy of Neurology's Patient Safety and Education Committees.  She has spoken regionally and nationally on "Patient Safety 101 for Neurologists" and has worked to develop curricula for neurology residency training programs.

Lee was the medical director of the Parkland Health and Hospital Systems Neurology Clinic.  From 2010-2012 she was named the medical director of the Acute Stroke Unit and 5th Floor Medical-Surgical Unit of the University Hospital-Zale Lipshy. In this role, she, along with nursing leadership, improved hand washing compliance of the physician staff to 100 percent as well as completed a successful Meaningful Use implementation with the stroke related measures. From 2011-2012 she also served as the medical director of the Inpatient Neurology Services at UT Southwestern Medical Center. 

Since coming to UK in 2012, Lee has been leading development of a vascular neurology fellowship training program, as well as a telehealth stroke care clinic within the Stroke Care Network.