Charles Williams serves as Vice-Chair for Network Development for the Department of Family Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine and as Medical Director of the Boston HealthNet (BHN), the network of 15 community health centers affiliated with Boston Medical Center. His main passion at work is quality and systems improvement. He increasingly interested in sustainability, in its broadest meaning –considering everything from environmental impact to life-work balance for individuals. He has experience with practice re-design, including implementation of open access, a project redesigning the referrals process at Boston Medical Center (AHRQ 2008) and helping practices at Boston Medical Center achieve NCQA Level 3 PCMH recognition.
As Vice-chair, his primary duties are guiding growth and development of the Family Medicine practices across the BHN network, serving as a local resource for quality improvement, managing privileging, and serving as a liaison with the Community Health Center practices.
As the Medical Director of BHN, his focus is on improving the quality of care across the entire network which serves approximately 245,000 primary care patients with the goal of optimizing the health in a sustainable way. He has helped to lead practice transformation of the Patient Centered Medical Home efforts at BMC and in the CHCs through the state’s Primary Care Payment Reform Initiative. He is continuing this work with BMC's in Medicaid ACO development focusing on clinical systems.
His teaching interests include quality improvement, practice management, electronic health records, evidence-based medicine, leadership development, bioethics and interviewing skills. Since 2001 He has overseen quality improvement for the Family Medicine department at BMC while serving as Medical Director for the hospital based practice. In 2003 he became the founding Medical Director of the East Boston Community Health Center Family Medicine Department. He was a leader in the clinical implementation of different Electronic Health Records in both practices. A graduate of University of Wisconsin - Madison (B.S. - Bioethics 1990, M.D. 1994) and the Brown Practice Medicine residency program, he also has research experience in Medical Ethics. He is a member of the American Board Family Practice, the American Academy of Family Physicians, Massachusetts Academy of Family Physicians, the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine, and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement.
At home he stays busy with his three children. He plays the French horn with the Cambridge Symphony Orchestra and is trying to do more composition too. Time permitting he enjoys cooking, playing squash and soccer, participating in quasi-competitive sailing, and occasionally dancing.