Christopher McStay, MD is Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Chief of Clinical Operations at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora, Colorado. He is the co-author of Disaster Preparedness for Emergency Departments.

Dr. McStay attended the Weill Cornell Medical College and completed his Emergency Medicine residency at NYU/Bellevue in New York City. In New York he completed a fellowship in Patient Safety and Quality through the Greater New York Hospital Association and United Hospital Fund. He served as the Chief of Service for the Bellevue Hospital Emergency Department and co-chaired the Health and Hospitals Corporation Emergency Department Directors Council, a system responsible for over 1 million annual ED visits.

Dr. McStay has contributed to hospital and ED disaster preparedness and was onsite during many incidents involving mass casualties, blackouts, nearby hospital closings, and hurricanes Irene and Sandy. After Sandy made landfall in October of 2012, he participated in the evacuation of Bellevue Hospital and led the reopening of an EMS receiving Freestanding Emergency Department until the hospital fully reopened 100 days later. In 2014 Dr. McStay joined the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Colorado as an Associate Professor (visiting), and he serves as the Chief of Clinical Operations for the Emergency Department at the University of Colorado Hospital.  Dr. McStay’s academic interests include disaster management and preparedness, wilderness and environmental medicine, and patient safety and quality.

Dr. McStay is an avid outdoorsman; serves on the Board of Directors, the Education Committee, and the Publications Guidelines Committee at the Wilderness Medical Society; and has completed fellowship training through the Academy of Wilderness Medicine. He enjoys educating health care providers on the delivery of medical care in austere environments.