Shriners Children’s Introduces Chief Medical Officer Scott H. Kozin, M.D.

After nearly 30 years as a hand surgeon and, later, chief of staff at Shriners Children’s Philadelphia, Scott H. Kozin, M.D., is leveraging his extensive clinical experience into system-wide leadership as the chief medical officer of Shriners Children’s.

In his new role, Dr. Kozin will guide the nonprofit healthcare system’s facilities across the United States, Canada and Mexico as well as the Shriners Children’s Medical Group, comprising physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants.

“This job can have more of an impact on a global stage,” he said. “I can truly influence the way Shriners Children's takes care of kids, the way the doctors operate and improve the outcomes following these surgeries."

Dr. Kozin believes that having an executive with clinical experience in the role of chief medical officer makes a huge difference and that physicians are best led by other physicians.

“I took care of patients for 30 years,” he said. “That gives me the ability to walk the walk and to talk the talk. I have the background and experience in what our physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants deal with every single day. If you look at institutions that are highly efficient, innovative and collaborative, those institutions are governed by physicians. Furthermore, the physicians and medical staff that work in those organizations are content, fulfilled and satisfied in their career choice. As chief medical officer, I have the credibility, respect and reputation to lead the medical group and the institution.”

While Dr. Kozin believes that Shriners Children’s currently provides amazing care, one of his goals as chief medical officer is to push that care to new heights. He also seeks to increase public awareness of everything the system has to offer, including patient care, education and research.

“My goal as chief medical officer is that everyone knows we're the best pediatric care provider in the world,” he said.

Decades of Dedication

In 1982, Dr. Kozin graduated from Duke University with a degree in computer science and, like a true Blue Devil, still quotes former basketball coach Michael Krzyzewski, one of the most famous names in college hoops, to this day.

“Coach K has had a dramatic influence on my leadership skills,” Dr. Kozin said. “We once asked Coach K the following question, ‘What do you do when you make a decision that ultimately may not be correct?’ And his comment was priceless. ‘You own the decision because you made the decision based upon the information you had at the time.’ One of the keys to leadership is don't make a decision until you have obtained the appropriate amount of information.”

After completing medical school at Hahnemann University and an orthopedic surgery residency at Albert Einstein Medical Center, he completed a fellowship focusing on hand and microvascular surgery at the Mayo Clinic. Dr. Kozin went on to treat both adults and children before joining Shriners Children’s Philadelphia as a full-time hand surgeon in 2000, operating “on the upper extremity from the brachial plexus to the fingertips,” he said.

“I love hand surgery. Hand surgery has a tremendous impact on a child’s function and their appearance. Hand surgery influences the way children interact with their peers. Ultimately, hand surgery impacts their function as adults in recreational and vocational activities.”

He added: “I love the way the hand works. You'll see a lot of hand surgeons looking at their hands and their patients’ hands, trying to understand how they work and trying to formulate a surgical plan to improve their function. Surgery that improves appearance and function is truly remarkable, with lifelong benefits to the child and their family."

After joining Shriners Children’s, Dr. Kozin devoted his time to patient care; research (publishing more than 150 peer-reviewed papers); and international outreach, including the Touching Hands Project, which he founded as president of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand to promote hand care in developing countries. In 2012, Dr. Kozin was named chief of staff of Shriners Children’s Philadelphia, but what he calls the pinnacle of his career didn’t occur until 2015.

That year, he was a principal part of a team that performed the first and only bilateral pediatric hand transplant on Zion, an 8-year-old Shriners Children’s patient from Baltimore, in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

“I've never experienced an event that was impactful to that degree,” Dr. Kozin said. “Zion’s story and surgery is why I went into medicine. Zion has had a profound impact on me as a person and my career as a hand surgeon."

Vision for the Future

With the inception of Shriners Children’s Medical Group, Dr. Kozin was named a physician lead. Now, as chief medical officer, he looks forward to directing the entire group, which he calls an “integral and important” part of the overall healthcare system that will lead Shriners Children’s into the future.

“The medical group is the home for physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants,” Dr. Kozin said. “That home represents an area where we can grow and prosper. That home allows us to attract the best talent and let them grow and focus on our tripartite mission. Our tripartite mission is like a three-legged stool: We deliver patient care, provide education and perform research. We expect our physicians to perform all three legs on that stool, and that concept is what makes us unique and different from other healthcare systems.”

He pointed out that, prior to the medical group, there was little connection among the physicians and advanced practice providers across Shriners Children’s hospitals, clinics and outreach locations. Now, the medical group fosters “collaboration and collegiality” among all those team members, he said.

“The medical group has attracted even higher-caliber surgeons and higher-caliber nurse practitioners and physician assistants who want to be in the Shriners Children’s medical group.”

Dr. Kozin emphasizes that groups drive higher performance through diverse skills and shared responsibility, outperforming even the best individual. So, the entirety of the group is making a difference across the healthcare system.

Another of Dr. Kozin’s primary goals as chief medical officer is to improve the efficiency of Shriners Children’s, especially when it comes to the patient and family experience.

“People want efficiency,” he said. “They want to see the physician in a timely and efficient manner. People have jobs and other responsibilities, so we must be respectful of their time.”

However, Dr. Kozin stresses that such improvements must be achieved while maintaining the special kind of care for which Shriners Children’s is known – and that specialized care patients experience is unlike anything else.

“That efficiency cannot supplant how we care for kids,” he said. “One thing we always try to tell our staff is the patient experience doesn't begin when they see the doctor. The experience begins from the moment they check in, to the moment they see the physician, to the moment they go to X-ray, to the moment they talk to the nurse, to the moment they leave – that’s their experience. So, encouraging all those people involved in the care of that child to be compassionate and caring is really important.”

He added: “We are unique. I've been all over the world. I've seen countless children's hospitals. We provide care differently than other institutions. When patients and their families come into the Shriners Children's family, they experience the wrap-around care that we provide, and they feel our compassionate care. I promise families that we provide – and will continue to provide – the best care possible.”