Jennifer Hepps MD

Education

B.A. Cognitive Neuroscience, Harvard University
Harris Fellowship in Child Development, Yale University
M.D. University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Resident in Pediatrics, National Capital Consortium Pediatrics Residency

Biography

Jennifer Hepps, MD FAAP is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Uniformed Services University (USU) and a Colonel in the United States Army. She serves as the Director of the Education Division in the Department of Pediatrics at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences. As a General Pediatrician, she splits her clinical time WRNMMC Pediatric Primary Care Medical Home (PCMH) and the Pediatrics Inpatient Ward.

Dr. Hepps obtained her A.B. in Cognitive Neuroscience from Harvard University and her M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. She completed her pediatric residency training, as well as Chief Residency, at the National Capital Consortium (NCC) Pediatrics Residency Program. She has served in multiple leadership roles in undergraduate and graduate medical education, including NCC Pediatrics Residency Program Director (2021-2025) and NCC Transitional Internship Program Director (2018-2021).

Dr. Hepps has served as site Co-Principal Investigator for the I-PASS Handoff Study and as site Principal Investigator for the I-PASS Patient-and-Family-Centered Rounds Study. She has also participated in both Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) Mentored Implementation projects: as co-director of the Simulation and Educational Strategies sub-committee and as Physician Mentor for Johns Hopkins Children’s Center. As part of the I-PASS Institute, she has contributed to over a dozen national workshops, presentations, and publications. She also serves as subject-matter expert for transitions-of-care in the Military Healthcare System and has helped disseminate I-PASS throughout multiple military hospitals.

Representative Bibliography

Using I-PASS in Psychiatry Residency Transitions of Care. Bowes MR, Santiago PN, Hepps JH, Hershey BR, Yu CE. Acad Psychiatry. 2017 Oct 30. doi: 10.1007/s40596-017-0822-1. [Epub ahead of print] No abstract available. PMID: 29086242

Integrating Research, Quality Improvement, and Medical Education for Better Handoffs and Safer Care: Disseminating, Adapting, and Implementing the I-PASS Program. Starmer AJ, Spector ND, West DC, Srivastava R, Sectish TC, Landrigan CP; I-PASS Study Group. Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf. 2017 Jul;43(7):319-329. doi: 10.1016/j.jcjq.2017.04.001. Epub 2017 Jun 1. PMID: 28648217

Resident Experiences With Implementation of the I-PASS Handoff Bundle. Coffey M, Thomson K, Li SA, Bismilla Z, Starmer AJ, O'Toole JK, Blankenburg RL, Rosenbluth G, Cole FS, Yu CE, Hepps JH, Sectish TC, Spector ND, Srivastava R, Allen AD, Mahant S, Landrigan CP. J Grad Med Educ. 2017 Jun;9(3):313-320. doi: 10.4300/JGME-D-16-00616.1. PMID: 28638509

Families as Partners in Hospital Error and Adverse Event Surveillance. Khan A et al. JAMA Pediatr. 2017 Apr 1;171(4):372-381. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2016.4812. PMID: 28241211

The Creation of Standard-Setting Videos to Support Faculty Observations of Learner Performance and Entrustment Decisions. Calaman S, Hepps JH, Bismilla Z, Carraccio C, Englander R, Feraco A, Landrigan CP, Lopreiato JO, Sectish TC, Starmer AJ, Yu CE, Spector ND, West DC; I-PASS Study Education Executive Committee. Acad Med. 2016 Feb;91(2):204-9. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000000853. Review. PMID: 26266461

Variation in printed handoff documents: Results and recommendations from a multicenter needs assessment. Rosenbluth G, Bale JF, Starmer AJ, Spector ND, Srivastava R, West DC, Sectish TC, Landrigan CP; I-PASS Study Education Executive Committee. J Hosp Med. 2015 Aug;10(8):517-24. doi: 10.1002/jhm.2380. Epub 2015 May 26. PMID: 26014471

Changes in medical errors after implementation of a handoff program. Starmer AJ et al. N Engl J Med. 2014 Nov 6;371(19):1803-12. doi: 10.1056/NEJMsa1405556. PMID: 25372088

Development, implementation, and dissemination of the I-PASS handoff curriculum: A multisite educational intervention to improve patient handoffs. Starmer AJ, O'Toole JK, Rosenbluth G, Calaman S, Balmer D, West DC, Bale JF Jr, Yu CE, Noble EL, Tse LL, Srivastava R, Landrigan CP, Sectish TC, Spector ND; I-PASS Study Education Executive Committee. Acad Med. 2014 Jun;89(6):876-84. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000000264. PMID: 24871238

Placing faculty development front and center in a multisite educational initiative: lessons from the I-PASS Handoff study. O'Toole JK, West DC, Starmer AJ, Yu CE, Calaman S, Rosenbluth G, Hepps JH, Lopreiato JO, Landrigan CP, Sectish TC, Spector ND; I-PASS Study Education Executive Committee. Acad Pediatr. 2014 May-Jun;14(3):221-4. doi: 10.1016/j.acap.2014.02.013. No abstract available. PMID: 24767774

I-pass, a mnemonic to standardize verbal handoffs. Starmer AJ, Spector ND, Srivastava R, Allen AD, Landrigan CP, Sectish TC; I-PASS Study Group. Pediatrics. 2012 Feb;129(2):201-4. doi: 10.1542/peds.2011-2966. Epub 2012 Jan 9. No abstract available. PMID: 22232313