Merrilee Imes Cox, MD

Dr. Cox is the Chief Medical Safety Officer for Dayton Children’s, a pediatric hospitalist, and an assistant professor in pediatrics. As the Chief Medical Safety Officer, Dr. Cox works with the Clinical Safety Team to lead efforts in the hospital to eliminate serious harm. She leads the root cause analysis process, investigating significant events, determining the root cause and developing plans to repair the systems and prevent future harm to patients. She also works with a multi-disciplinary team to help develop tools to help improve identification of patients who have conditions which can cause significant medical complications if there is delayed recognition. As a pediatric hospitalist, she cares for children who are admitted to the general pediatric service. Working with pediatric residents, she cares for children with a range of illnesses from bronchiolitis and asthma, to complex medical issues, in which she provides oversight to teams with multiple specialists. Dr. Cox trained here at Wright State University School of Medicine, completing her general pediatric residency here with the United States Air Force. She spent three years at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, where she had the opportunity to not only work in the largest free standing clinic in the Air Force, but work at Lester Naval Hospital. Upon her return, she spent a year at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, where she served as the medical director of the newborn nursery, before moving on and joining Ohio Pediatrics for a short period. Dr. Cox joined the hospitalists in 2007.