Carolyn E Kloek, MD

Carolyn Kloek, M.D., MBA, is the inaugural chief medical officer (CMO) for OU Health, the University of Oklahoma's academic health system and the state's only fully integrated, comprehensive academic health system. She was named to the role in March 2023 and leads clinical performance and outcomes across the system.

As CMO, Dr. Kloek has built the systems, teams, and leadership structures required to make clinical improvement an enterprise capability — designed to sustain results beyond any single initiative or tenure. She rebuilt the clinical performance infrastructure of the health system, established the senior clinical leadership team that drives it — including a Chief Quality and Safety Officer, Chief Experience Officer, Chief Medical Informatics Officer, VP of Care Management, and a team of Associate Chief Medical Officers covering the major clinical service areas — and advanced an enterprise-wide culture of safety alongside organization-wide capability in process improvement and high reliability.

Under her leadership, OU Health has made meaningful change in critical clinical outcomes including reduced adult mortality index by 50%, moved hospital-acquired infection rates from the bottom 10% nationally to the top 10%, and more than doubled safety event reporting. She is first author of an April 2026 NEJM Catalyst article on the OU Health transformation and has been recognized as a Hospital and Health System Chief Medical Officer to Know by Becker's Healthcare (2023–2026).

Dr. Kloek served on the faculty at Harvard Medical School for twelve years before joining OU Health and continues to practice as a comprehensive ophthalmologist and teach residents at the OU Health Dean McGee Eye Institute. She is a Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology and Vice Chair for Quality and Innovation. She earned her medical degree from Harvard Medical School and a Healthcare MBA from George Washington University.