Research Interests: quality improvement and patient safety, organizational and system strategies, development of effective integrated systems of care, leadership and organizational issues
G. Ross Baker is a professor in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto where he teaches and carries out research on patient safety, quality improvement strategies and leadership and organizational change. He is also Director of the MSc. Program in Quality Improvement and Patient Safety.
Among his recent research projects are an assessment of governance in Ontario Primary Care Organizations, an exploratory study of contributing causes for medication and fall incidents in home care and a synthesis of literature on physician engagement in healthcare organizations.
Ross led a study of effective governance practices in improving quality and patient safety in 2009. Results from this study have been published in Healthcare Quarterly and this report served as the basis for the Governance Toolkit (Effective Governance in Quality and Patient Safety) and a course for trustees developed by the Canadian Patient Safety Institute and Canadian Health Services Research Foundation, offered across Canada.
Ross Baker, together with Dr. Peter Norton of the University of Calgary led the Canadian Adverse Events study which was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal in 2004. Baker and Norton were awarded the Health Services Research Advancement Award for their work on patient safety and quality improvement by the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation.
Ross has been a member of the Health Quality Council board in Saskatchewan since 2005. He chaired an Advisory Panel on Avoidable Hospitalizations for the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care whose report was released by the Ministry in November 2011. He also served as a member of the King’s Fund (London, UK) Commission on Leadership and Management in the NHS in 2010-2011 and is a member of the Improvement Science Development Group of the Health Foundation in London since 2011.
PhD Candidate