Michael Shwartz

Ph D, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Urban and Regional Planning, 1975.

MBA, University of California, Berkeley, Graduate School of Business Administration, Operations Research, 1967.

BA, Johns Hopkins University, Economics, 1965.

Journal Articles:

Rosen, A. K., Loveland, S., Shin, M., Shwartz, M., Hanchate, A., Chen, Q., Kaafarani, H. M., Borzecki, A., (2013). Examining the Impact of the AHRQ Patient Safety Indicators (PSIs) in the Veterans Health Administration: The Case of Readmissions. Medical Care, 51(12), 37-44.

Sullivan, J. L., Shwartz, M., Burgess, J. F., Pekoz, E. A., Christiansen, C. L., Gerena-Melia, M., Berlowitz, D., (2013). Person Centered Care Practices and Quality in Department of Veterans Affairs Nursing Homes: Is There a Relationship?. Medical Care, 51(2), 165-171.

Shwartz, M., Pekoz, E., Burgess, J., Christiansen, C., (2013). Shrinkage estimators for composite measure of quality conceptualized as a formative construct. Health Services Research, 48(1), 271-289.

Restuccia, J., Cohen, A., Horwitt, J., Shwartz, M., (2012). Hospital Implementation of Health Information Technology and Quality of Care: Are They Related?. BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, 12(1), 109-116.

Borzecki, A., Cowan, A. J., Cevasco, M., Shin, M. H., Shwartz, M., Itani, K., Rosen, A. K., (2012). Is Development of Postoperative Venous Thromboembolish Related to Thromboprophylaxis Use? A Case-Control Study in the Veterans Health Administration. 38(8), 348-358.

Rosen, A. K., Itani, K. M., Cevasco, M., Kaafarani, H. M., Hanchate, A., Shin, M., Shwartz, M., Loveland, S., Chen, Q., Borzecki, A., (2012). Validating the Patient Safety Indicators (PSIs) in the Veterans Administration: Do They Accurately Identify True Safety Events. Medical Care, 50(1), 74-85.

Shwartz, M., Cohen, A., Restuccia, J., Ren, Z., Labonte, A., Theokary, C., Kang, R., Horwitt, J., (2011). How Well Can We Identify the High-Performing Hospital?. Medical Care Research and Review , 68(3), 290-310. Sage.

Pekoz, E., Shwartz, M., Christiansen, C., Berlowitz, D., (2010). Approximate Models for Aggregate Data When Individual-Level Data Sets Are Very Large or Unavailable. Statistics in Medicine, 29(32), 2180-2193.

Shwartz, M., Cramer, I., Holmes, S., Cohen, A., Restuccia, J., Lukas, C. V., Sullivan, J., Charns, M. P., (2010). Survey-Assessed Quality and Organizational Factors Related to Quality in Pursuing Perfection Hospitals. Quality Management in Health Care, 19(4), 349-363.

Stolzmann, K., Meterko, M., Shwartz, M., Young, G., Pekoz, E., Benzer, J., Osatuke, K., White, B., Mohr, D., (2010). Accounting for Variation in Technical Quality and Patient Satisfaction: The Contribution of Patient, Provider, Team and Medical Center. Medical Care, 48(8), 676-682.

VanDeusen Lukas, C., Engle, R., Holmes, S., Parker, V., Seibert, M., Shwartz, M., Sullivan, J., (2010). Strengthening Organizations to Implement Evidence-Based Clinical Practices. Health Care Management Review , 35(3), 235-245.

Young, G. J., Meterko, M. M., Mohr, D., Shwartz, M., Lin, H., (2009). Congruence in the Assessment of Service Quality Between Employees and Customers: A Study of a Public Health Care Delivery System. Journal of Business Research, 62(11), 1127-1135.

Shwartz, M., Burgess, J. F., Berlowitz, D., (2009). Benefit-of-the-Doubt Approaches for Calculating a Composite Measure of Quality. Health Services and Outcomes Research Methodology, 9(4), 234-251.

Cohen, A., Restuccia, J., Shwartz, M., Drake, J., Kang, R., Kralovec, P., Holmes, S., Margolin, F., Bohr, D., (2008). A Survey of Hospital Quality Improvement Activities. Medical Care Research and Review, 65(5), 571-595.

Shwartz, M., Ren, Z., Pekoz, E., Wang, X., Cohen, A., Restuccia, J., (2008). Estimating A Composite Measure of Hospital Quality From the Hospital Compare Database: Differences When Using a Bayesian Hierarchical Latent Variable Model Versus Denominator-Based Weights. Medical Care, 46(8), 778-785.

Lukas, C., Holmes, S. C., Cohen, A. K., Restuccia, J., Cramer, I., Shwartz, M. E., Charns, M. P., (2007). Transformational Change in Health Care Systems: An Organizational Model. Health Care Management Review, 32(4), 309-320.

Mull, H. J., Chen, Q., O'Brien, W. J., Shwartz, M., Borzecki, A. M., Hanchate, A., Rosen, A. K., (Accepted). Comparing Two Methods of Assessing 30-day Readmissions: What is the Impact on Hospital Profiling in the Veterans Health Administration?. MedicalCare,

Chen, Q., Borzecki, A. M., Cevasco, M., Shin, M., Shwartz, M., Itani, K. M., Rosen, A. K., (Accepted). Examining the Relationship Between Processes of Care and Selected AHRQ Patient Safety Indicators Postoperative Wound Dehiscence and Accidental Puncture or Laceration Using the VA Electronic Medical Record. American Journal of Medical Quality,

Book Chapters:

Shwartz, M., Ash, A. S., (2013). Empirically Evaluating Risk Adjustment Models (revised). : Risk Adjustment for Measuring Health Care Outcomes, 4th edition, L.I. Iezzoni (ed), Health Administration Press.

Shwartz, M., Ash, A. S., (2013). Estimating the Effect of an Intervention from Observational Data (revised). : Risk Adjustment for Measuring Health Care Outcomes, 4th edition, L.I. Iezzoni (ed), Health Administration Press.

Other Publications:

Setodji, C. M., Shwartz, M., (2013). Fixed or Random Effects Models: What Are the Key Inference Issues?. (1, 51, 25-27).: Medical Care.

Examining the Relationship of Culture Change, Adverse Events and Costs in CLCs, Veterans Health Administration . (2012 - 2015).

Patient Safety Center of Inquiry on Measurement to Advance Patient Safety, Veterans Health Administration. (2012 - 2014).

Validating and Classifying VA Readmissions for Quality Assessment, Veterans Health Administration. (2011 - 2014).

Enhanced Risk Adjustment Using Laboratory Test and Pharmacy Data, Veterans Health Administration . (July 2010 - June 2013).

Organizational Fit and Quality Improvement in Readmission Rates, Veterans Health Administration. (2011 - 2013).

Service to the School:

School of Management, Curriculum Development Activities, Course/Module Design Lead , approximately 40 hours spent for the year. (2012 - Present).

School of Management, Working Group/Task Force Participation, Committee Member, approximately 20 hours spent for the year. (2012 - Present).


Research Committee



Boston University, Working Group/Task Force Participation, Committee Member, approximately 40 hours spent for the year. (2012 - 2012).


Member of the Provost Committee to review the BU School of Public Health



Boston University, Working Group/Task Force Participation, Committee Member, approximately 40 hours spent for the year. (2011 - 2012).


Member of search committee for chair of Health Policy and Management, BU School of Public Health



School of Management, Working Group/Task Force Participation, Committee Member, approximately 10 hours spent for the year. (2012 - 2012).


Member of search committee for head of Global and Sector Initiatives