Bela Patel, MD, FCCP, FCCM, ATSF

Biography

Dr. Bela Patel is the Vice Dean of Healthcare Quality and the Division Director for Critical Care Medicine at the McGovern Medical School in the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston.  She also serves as the Regional Chief Medical Officer and the Executive Medical Director of Critical Care for Memorial Hermann Hospital Texas Medical Center.

Dr. Patel attended the University of Texas in Austin and McGovern Medical School (formerly The University of Texas Houston Medical School).  She completed her Internal Medicine training in 1996 and subsequently two fellowships in Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine and Sleep Medicine in 1999 also at McGovern Medical School (formerly The University of Texas Houston Medical School).

In 2002, Dr. Patel was appointed the Chief of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, and later appointed the Chief of Medicine at Lyndon B. Johnson General Hospital and Vice-Chair of the Department of Medicine in 2007. In 2009, she became the Assistant Chief Medical Officer and Executive Medical Director of Critical Care at Memorial Hermann Hospital Texas Medical Center.

Through her work in Quality and Patient Safety, she was inducted as a Fellow in Clinical Safety and Effectiveness by the University of Texas System.  Dr. Patel was appointed as the Assistant Dean of Healthcare quality in 2011 and the Vice Dean in 2017 and supports the 18 Vice Chairs of Quality in Medicine at McGovern Medical School.  Dr. Patel’s research interest includes pulmonary hypertension, cognitive complexity and error reduction in critical care, and quality improvement implementation science.