Center for Patient and Professional Advocacy

February 13, 2026

30 years of changing health care culture: How Vanderbilt Health’s CPPA pioneered professional accountability 

Three decades later, CPPA is a cornerstone of health care culture transformation, around the U.S. and the world reaching hundreds of thousands of clinicians.

By Holly Fletcher
William Cooper, MD, MPH
September 9, 2025

William Cooper named Senior Vice President for Professionalism and Clinical Excellence 

He will be responsible for promoting and ensuring the highest standards of professionalism and performance among faculty, clinical staff, trainees and students throughout the health system.

By Holly Fletcher
July 23, 2025

Mount Sinai Health System achieves 94% response rate in professional accountability program through partnership with Vanderbilt Health’s CPPA 

By Holly Fletcher
May 28, 2025

Standardized huddle process improves response to unprofessional behaviors in health care settings 

By Holly Fletcher
May 7, 2025

Vanderbilt Health showcases supply chain and professional accountability solutions at Becker’s 15th Annual Meeting 

Teams were able to engage with partners, share best practices and explore future opportunities to support improved outcomes and operational performance across health systems nationwide. 

By Christina Reyes
February 10, 2025

Regional Hospitals adopt Vanderbilt Health professional accountability programs

The Vanderbilt Center for Patient and Professional Advocacy has exported its system for professional accountability to some 300 hospitals and physician groups around the country. Now it’s the turn for Vanderbilt Health’s Regional Hospitals.

By Paul Govern
June 18, 2024

Study tallies reports of unprofessional behavior among physicians

Reports from 193 hospitals were analyzed. It turns out that surgeons draw the most complaints.
By Paul Govern
May 16, 2024

Clinician accountability program from VUMC associated with large savings

A program run by Vanderbilt University Medical Center that provides peer feedback to high-risk clinicians was associated with a significant decrease in malpractice claims costs at a large orthopaedic surgery practice, according to a recent study.
By Paul Govern
April 13, 2023

Low-professionalism residents later draw higher patient complaints: study

A Vanderbilt study finds a strong association between lower ratings for interpersonal communication skills among medical residents in their last year of training and greater likelihood of unsolicited patient complaints among doctors during their first year of employment after training.
By Paul Govern
January 3, 2023

Study shows peer messaging tool can be successfully implemented in the nursing workforce

A new study shows that a tool developed at Vanderbilt University Medical Center to address disrespectful workplace behaviors through trained peer-to-peer messaging can be successfully implemented in the nursing workforce with the appropriate support.
By Matt Batcheldor
July 7, 2022

Professionalism and patient outcomes

A study of more than 70,000 trauma patients found that those who received care from a service with a high proportion of physicians modeling unprofessional behavior were at a 24% increased risk of death or complications.
By Paul Govern
April 9, 2020

VUMC study named as JAMA Surgery’s top paper

The world’s No.1 ranked surgery journal, JAMA Surgery, has announced that a June 2019 study led by researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center was the journal’s top paper of the year as measured by Altmetric Attention Score.
By Paul Govern
December 19, 2019

Hickson named to new VUMC leadership roles

Gerald Hickson, MD, Joseph C. Ross Professor of Medical Education and Administration, will assume new leadership and advisory roles with the Center for Patient and Professional Advocacy (CPPA) and the Vanderbilt Health Affiliated Network (VHAN), beginning Jan. 1, 2020.
By John Howser