P.J. Brennan, MD, has been named Chief of Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety for the University of Pennsylvania Health System, effective immediately. He will continue to serve as a Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases specialist.

As Chief of Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety, he will lead the Health System's initiatives in the areas of patient safety and satisfaction. This will include coordinating the efforts of each of the System's entities to focus on creating a safer environment for patients, families, visitors and staff. He will also direct the Clinical Effectiveness and Quality Improvement Department, with the goal of maintaining the highest level of quality patient care while reducing wasteful resource utilization and unnecessarily long hospital stays. In addition, Brennan will direct Quality Initiatives specific to Penn Medical Center.

After earning his medical degree from Temple University School of Medicine, Brennan took his residency in Internal Medicine at Temple University Hospital, where he also served as chief resident. He came to Penn in 1986, on a fellowship in Infectious Diseases. Two years later, he joined the Penn faculty as an Assistant Professor of Medicine. In 1990, Brennan became the Hospital Epidemiologist at Penn Medical Center, a position he held until this latest appointment. In 1992, he became associated with the Health System's Home Care Programs, initially as an Associate Medical Director and in 1996, as the Medical Director of Penn Home Infusion Therapy. He currently chairs the Infection Control Committee at Penn, a position he has held previously at both Presbyterian Medical Center and the Veterans Administration. Since 1997 Brennan has chaired the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee. He is also the Chair-elect of the Center's Medical Board and will assume the Chair in July, 2002.

For the past 10 years, Brennan has been involved in public health efforts to treat tuberculosis and related conditions, dealing actively with both patients and the infection control implications of the disease. In 1997, he was named both Director of the Tuberculosis Control Program of the Philadelphia Department of Public Health and the Tuberculosis Consultant for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The following year under Brennan's direction, the Tuberculosis Control Program established the Lawrence Flick Clinic for the Treatment of Tuberculosis. Brennan plans to continue his work in this area.

Brennan is a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the Philadelphia College of Physicians. He is also a member of the Society of Healthcare Epidemiologists of America. He serves on national committees for several professional organizations, including The Program Director's Committee and the Tuberculosis Committee of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

Brennan lives with his wife, Ann, and their three children in Havertown, PA.

Click here to view a photo of Dr. Brennan.


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Penn Medicine is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, excellence in patient care, and community service. The organization consists of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and Penn’s Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine, founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school.

The Perelman School of Medicine is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $550 million awarded in the 2022 fiscal year. Home to a proud history of “firsts” in medicine, Penn Medicine teams have pioneered discoveries and innovations that have shaped modern medicine, including recent breakthroughs such as CAR T cell therapy for cancer and the mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System’s patient care facilities stretch from the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania to the New Jersey shore. These include the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Chester County Hospital, Lancaster General Health, Penn Medicine Princeton Health, and Pennsylvania Hospital—the nation’s first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional facilities and enterprises include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, Penn Medicine at Home, Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, among others.

Penn Medicine is an $11.1 billion enterprise powered by more than 49,000 talented faculty and staff.

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