Valarie McPherson has been named the chief nursing officer for Hackensack Meridian Mountainside Medical Center, the hospital announced.
McPherson, a health care nursing and operations executive with more than 20 years of experience, joins Mountainside Medical Center from Kaiser Permanente Woodland Hills in Los Angeles.
McPherson has successfully developed leaders, departments and programs to deliver quality-driven, evidence-based patient care. At Kaiser Permanente, she was responsible for the strategic leadership of all nursing and patient care functions.
A number of quality and nursing operational improvements are credited to her time at Kaiser, including reduction in patient length of stay, improved throughput metrics for admission from the Emergency Department and discharge times, a decrease in hospital acquired infections and developing a nursing strategic plan as well as a shared governance and professional practice model.
Mountainside Medical Center CEO Tim O’Brien said McPherson will have impact.
“We are looking forward to having Val join our executive leadership team,” he said. “Her knowledge and expertise, paired with her data-driven leadership, will support Mountainside’s vision to be the highest quality hospital of choice for our community.”
McPherson said she’s eager to start.
“I am excited to join Mountainside Medical Center,” she said. “Nurses serve in some of the most important roles in health care and make a difference every day in the lives of our patients. Mountainside is an outstanding community hospital, and it is my honor to collaborate with nursing and physicians to advance the hospital’s care.”
