Meritus was founded to bring physician-level clinical judgment into organizational decision-making — where most of the highest-stakes choices are made without it.
We work from medical reasoning — differential diagnosis, clinical probability, risk stratification — applied to leadership and organizational questions. Templates do not survive contact with real operational pressure.
Burnout, impairment, and decision fatigue are not HR issues. They are operational variables that move outcomes — patient safety, financial performance, leadership retention — and they deserve the same rigor as any other operational risk.
No hand-off to junior consultants, no outsourced judgment, no offshore research. Every engagement is led by the principal and delivered to the people accountable for the outcome.
Real leadership problems are not discussed in open rooms. Meritus engagements are structured so that the hardest truths — about people, culture, and pressure — can be named and addressed without organizational consequence.
Psychiatrist | Co-Founder, Meritus Advisory Group
Board-Certified Psychiatrist | Brigade Psychiatrist, U.S. Army Reserve
Dr. Leonardo Batista is a board-certified psychiatrist and healthcare leader with over a decade of experience building and leading behavioral health services across hospital systems.
He previously served as Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, where he developed and expanded multiple service lines including emergency psychiatry, consultation-liaison services, outpatient programs, and an ECT program with regional referral volume.
Through Meritus Advisory Group, he works directly with hospital leadership to design, optimize, and operationalize behavioral health services, with a focus on access, clinical quality, and financial sustainability.
His approach is grounded in real-world clinical operations, combining psychiatric expertise with experience in hospital leadership and military behavioral health. He focuses on practical solutions to common system challenges, including access bottlenecks, underperforming service lines, and program development.
Former Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health
Led development of emergency psychiatry, outpatient services, consultation-liaison psychiatry, and ECT program expansion.
Brigade Psychiatrist, U.S. Army Reserve
Experience supporting behavioral health operations in high-demand, mission-critical environments.
Board-Certified Psychiatrist
Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association (FAPA).
Consulting Psychiatrist, Lemuel Shattuck Hospital (Massachusetts)
Advising on the design, implementation, and clinical integration of an ECT program within a state hospital setting.
Regional Psychiatrist, Virginia Department of Corrections
Experience managing behavioral health needs across large, resource-constrained systems with complex patient populations.
Founder, Mental Health Mastery Group (MHMG)
Multi-state psychiatry practice focused on access, payer mix, and scalable outpatient care models.
Advisory work with international teams developing digital and game-based mental health interventions, including projects in Brazil and Finland.