Waheed Baqai

Waheed Baqai has a diverse set of skills, with over a decade in almost all aspects of healthcare management and operations. His experience includes laboratory research, consulting, teaching, nonprofit work, and special project experience. Before joining WISE, Waheed worked with HC2 Strategies as a senior consultant. Prior to HC2, Waheed worked as a quality director at Baptist Health in Jacksonville, Florida, where he helped the organization transform its accreditation, clinical quality, and patient safety program. He also led several strategic initiatives, including Magnet designation and the MD Anderson Cancer Center partnership. Waheed oversaw the work of numerous Baptist Health teams, including Infection Control, Diabetes Education, Adult Nursing Education, and Nurse Navigators.

Prior to moving to Florida, he worked at Loma Linda University Health as a director in the Patient Safety & Reliability department. His responsibilities included clinical decision support, analytics, revenue enhancement, quality outcomes, geospatial-enabled health mapping, and clinical documentation integrity. His work directly impacted improvements in the institution’s public quality ratings with HealthGrades and Leapfrog, added over $55 million in additional CMS reimbursement to the organization, and provided physicians access to personalized outcomes data.

Waheed received his bachelor’s in science with a major in biopsychology and a minor in global peace and security from the University of California, Santa Barbara. A native of Loma Linda, California, Waheed returned after college to earn a Master of Public Health with an emphasis in biostatistics and epidemiology from Loma Linda University, where he was recognized for his academic and social achievements. In addition, Waheed has earned certifications in public health and as a Six Sigma Black Belt in performance improvement and has passed the fellow exam for the American College of Healthcare Executives.