Peggy Duggan, MD, FACS

About Peggy Duggan, MD, FACS

Peggy Duggan, MD, FACS, is the Executive Vice President, Chief Physician Executive and Chief Medical Officer at the Florida Health Sciences Center (FHSC), which comprises an array of organizations, including Tampa General Hospital (TGH), one of the nation’s leading not-for-profit academic health systems and in partnership with the University of South Florida. Duggan also has a collaborative faculty appointment in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine’s Department of Surgery.

Since joining Tampa General in 2021, Duggan has overseen a multitude of functions related to physicians and patient care for the academic health system, which includes nearly 14,000 team members and providers across 150-plus locations.

Duggan is also responsible for the conceptualization and implementation of many innovative programs across Tampa General — impacting both patient and team member safety, enhancing world-class care and supporting a compassionate culture.

In 2022, Duggan initiated TGH Schwartz Rounds, an international program using research-based strategies, tools and support to provide caregivers with resources to create and sustain a culture of compassion. During regularly scheduled times, physicians, nurses, social workers, health care professionals and psychologists openly and honestly discuss the social and emotional issues they face in caring for patients and their families. The benefits of TGH Schwartz Rounds include strengthening caregiver-patient relationships, improving caregiver support and boosting caregiver resiliency.

Additionally, as a leader in Tampa General’s initiative to become a certified Collaborative High Reliability Organization®, Duggan was instrumental in the Tampa General Hospital becoming the first academic health system and Level I trauma center to receive two key qualifications — Collaborative Just Culture Program® and Reliability Management Team™. The qualifications are the initial steps in the process of achieving Collaborative High Reliability Organization certification. Organizations worldwide, from airlines to major utilities, have achieved high reliability by demonstrating they have maintained high levels of safety, quality and efficiency over an extended period, and health care organizations have just started to take this approach to achieving safety and improving quality.

Under Duggan’s leadership, Tampa General has also revolutionized its approach to sepsis management, creating an early warning system that helps with improved intervention for this life-threatening complication of an infection. As a result, TGH showed a significant reduction in sepsis mortality, accounting for more than 200 lives saved annually. Through this ongoing work, TGH has developed pathways to get patients home from the hospital in a timelier manner.

In honor of career successes and dedication to patient safety and clinical innovation, Duggan was recognized by Becker’s Hospital Review as one of its “Hospital and Health Systems Chief Medical Officers to Know” for 2024. This marked the third consecutive year that Duggan was recognized on the Becker’s list, which highlights physician leaders who champion patient safety, uphold rigorous quality standards, act as liaisons between leadership teams and medical staff, manage risk and much more. Also in 2024, Duggan was honored as one of the esteemed recipients of the Tampa Bay Business Journal’s Businesswoman of the Year recognition. Duggan was one of 30 of the city’s most dynamic and influential businesswomen to make the prestigious 2024 list.

Before joining TGH, Duggan spent more than 15 years in the Mass General Brigham Health System (formerly Partners Healthcare). During that time, she practiced as a breast surgeon and medical director of the breast center and ultimately became the chief medical officer for the Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital. In her role as CMO, Duggan worked at both the hospital and the system level on a variety of operational, clinical and strategic activities. She held several other leadership positions while there, including medical director of credentialing and president of the medical staff.

Duggan earned a medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Boston University. She has completed the Brigham Leadership Program at Harvard Business School and has trained at the Association of American Medical Colleges CMO Leadership Academy. Castle Connelly has listed Duggan as one of America’s Top Doctors since 2014.

Outside of her role at Tampa General, Duggan also serves in an advisory capacity with several organizations, including the Vizient Chief Medical Executive Steering Committee, the American Hospital Association Southeast Region Policy Board (member) and the Florida Chamber Health Council (member). She is recognized as a national expert in health care and health care management and frequently speaks and presents at conferences across the country.