Peak Performer: Jennifer Cabrera

I believe that Jennifer Cabrera is the embodiment of what a Peak Performer is. 

I have worked with her intermittently throughout my time at Cook, but have collaborated with her much more closely over the last several years in my Quality role and each time I work with her, she goes above and beyond. While it is difficult to limit this nomination to only 2 specific examples, the first has to be when she led efforts to create an entirely new class of CME credit for physicians at Cook. I had reached out to her about awarding Process Improvement/QI CME credit to physicians who were engaged in quality improvement work. This was something that was not offered, at the time, and while she could have responded and politely said we do not offer that type of credit, her response was “We don’t currently offer that, but let me look into it and see what we can do.” Jen then poured countless time and energy into researching the requirements and also understanding our process for approving physician quality improvement projects to make sure the two were aligned with one another.

She suggested several great changes to our Maintenance of Certification QI process so that it would also satisfy the CME requirements. Because of Jen’s hard work, not only are we able to offer Maintenance of Certification credits to physicians, but we are now able to also offer them CME credit, further incentivizing physicians to engage with this important work. Even now, Jen continues to attend our monthly meetings and reaches out to physicians so they can complete the requirements to obtain CME. While some physicians quickly complete the disclosure forms, some do not. Instead of giving up and moving on, Jen patiently reminds them again about the need for this form. They eventually get it in and I know they will all be thankful for her polite persistence when they complete their project and receive those CME credits! Our ability to award CME credit for QI work was a huge win and there is no way we could have done that without Jen!

​Jen has been instrumental in helping us roll out our Serious Safety Event and Sentinel Event education program for physicians and APPs. The presentations that are released for this series are intermittent but whenever I have a new presentation that is ready to
go, Jen is always so friendly and turns it around incredibly quickly. When I have asked for reports to see how many individuals are reviewing the material, she quickly provides it to me. It seems like no matter what time of day I end up reaching out to Jen about a new presentation, she is always quick to respond and does it in a way that I can see and feel her smile beaming through the computer screen. She has been an absolute joy to work with and I look forward to continuing to work with her in the future.​