Quality and Safety in Health Care, Part LXIX Introduction to the Responsibilities of the Chief Medical Officer

The chief medical officer (CMO) is a key member of the administration of most large health care systems. The CMO helps with communication between the medical staff and the nonphysician administrators. The CMO typically plays an important role in utilization review, ensuring compliance with laws and regulations, peer review, credentialing, and privileging. One of the most important roles of the CMO has been to improve quality and safety while keeping costs under control, although now many institutions also have quality and safety officers. In addition, the CMO plays a major role in advising the administration regarding clinical equipment purchases, including those for emerging technologies, and in long-range clinical planning.