Dr. Hardy’s responsibilities will encompass partnering with the Chair and Executive Director in the following areas: managing the business and administrative affairs of the department; providing expertise in the areas of finance (financial reporting and analysis, budgeting, expense control and revenue enhancement), strategic planning, program development, clinical operations administration, human resource management, physical space management, information systems and contract/affiliation negotiations and management. Dr. Hardy will also support the Chair, Division Chiefs and faculty in the development and implementation of strategy and policies; in concert with Mr. Barry Guild, the Department’s Executive Director, Dr. Hardy will plan, lead, organize and direct the business affairs of the Department; and may represent the Chair and Department as the physician executive in interfaces with the University, Medical School, other departments, affiliate hospitals and other external constituents. Dr. Hardy’s overarching goal will be to help ensure that the Department is efficient, effective and clinically outstanding, and that we continue to enjoy financial health and clinical growth.
Dr. Hardy is an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology at Washington University; he has served as the Associate Vice Chair for Clinical Operations in the Anesthesiology Department since 2017, and has been highly effective in that role. Dr. Hardy is a skilled clinical pediatric anesthesiologist. Prior to joining our faculty, he was the Director of Pediatric Cardiovascular Anesthesiology for four years, at the Ann and Robert H Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. He completed his medical training as one of the top students at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, which is also where he pursued anesthesiology residency. He completed his Pediatric Anesthesiology fellowship at Children’s Memorial Hospital of Chicago, and his Pediatric Cardiac Anesthesiology fellowship at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. In 2012, he was selected for the Faculty Leadership Development Program in Health Care Quality and Patient Safety at Northwestern University Feinberg Institute of Medicine. He also received formal training in Strategy and Executive Leadership in 2014 from Northwestern Kellogg Graduate School of Management Executive Leadership Education. He subsequently completed his Executive MBA at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University in 2016. He recently completed the Academic Medical Leadership Program for Physician and Scientists at Washington University’s Olin School of Business. Over the last decade, he has held numerous leadership roles and has served on multiple management committees, both at Northwestern and at Washington University.
This Vice-Chair for Clinical Operations is a critically important role, for which Dr. Hardy has impressive qualifications and an exemplary track record. With his formal training and rich leadership experiences, coupled with a Lean Six Sigma certification, Dr. Hardy is well trained to harness collaborative team efforts in order to improve performance by systematically removing waste and reducing variation in our clinical operations. Please join me in thanking Dr. Lockhart for her many years of service in this role, and in congratulating Dr. Hardy and in wishing him every success in making this role his own, and in contributing substantially to our department’s ongoing successes.
Michael Avidan, MBBCh, FCASA
Dr. Seymour and Rose T. Brown of Anesthesiology
Head of Department of Anesthesiology