Debbie Lester is the Chief Quality and Social Impact Program Officer at Urban Health Plan, where she began her community healthcare career in 1991. She heads up the quality division and directs the Institute for the Advancement of Community Health, an internal quality improvement (QI) institute and an innovation arm of Urban Health Plan.
Debbie is responsible for carrying out the organization’s quality management plan to improve clinical, operational, and financial operations throughout the organization under the President & CEO and Senior VP/CMO. In close collaboration with the informatics team and her QI staff, Debbie has led the organization in building a culture of continuous quality improvement and internal QI expertise, achieving significant improvement in depression screening and follow-up, diabetes control, HIV testing and viral load suppression, colon cancer screening, and other clinical and non-clinical topics.
In addition, in partnership with Directors of Social Services, Nutrition, Health Education, and Care Management, Debbie has fortified a robust organizational infrastructure that addresses the social determinants of health through integrated support services and innovative patient programs throughout Urban Health Plan.
“Quality improvement is part of our culture, a huge part of our identity,” she says. New staff members are trained on QI methodologies, data dashboards are scrutinized, and no question goes unanswered. Debbie leads the organization in QI expertise under her direction and collaborates closely with the informatics team and her QI staff. She has seen significant improvement in many programs, including depression screening and follow-up, HIV testing and viral load suppression, colon cancer screening, and many others.
Thanks to Debbie and her team’s efforts, Urban Health Plan received eight quality awards from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)in 2022—the most the organization has received in a single year. One of her proudest accomplishments is the significant uptick UHP is seeing in diabetes control: approximately 80% of patients are controlling their diabetes, and approximately 7,000 people in the community are living healthier. “I love hearing how patients are improving; that’s what really brings it home and makes me happy.”
Outside the walls of UHP, Debbie continues her work, running trainings for health care organizations and/or leading QI projects for the Community Health Care Association of New York State, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the California Primary Care Association and Gilead Sciences Inc. HIV FOCUS initiative. She contributed to the quality improvement implementation guide developed by NACHC in 2007 and has co-authored three published articles on healthcare quality improvement.
She holds a master’s degree in social work from Hunter College in New York City and an MS Degree in Organizational Development and Leadership from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. And although she’s not originally from the community, it holds a special place in her heart. “When I walk down Southern Boulevard – looking, listening – it just gives me a feeling. It’s home.”
