Last month the Tennessee Hospital Association held its 77th Annual Meeting at Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center where the membership elected and installed the 2016 board and recognized outstanding work by 26 award recipients in 14 categories.
Keith Goodwin, president and CEO of East Tennessee Children’s Hospital (ETCH) in Knoxville was installed as chairman. Goodwin has served in his current position with ETCH since 2007. Previously, he spent more than 28 years at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. In addition to being a member of the boards of THA, Children’s Hospital Alliance of Tennessee and Hospital Alliance of Tennessee, he serves on the boards of the East Tennessee Foundation, Metropolitan Drug Commission and Knox County Imagination Library. He also has held adjunct faculty positions in hospital administration at Ohio State University and the University of Minnesota.
Alan Watson, (pictured) CEO, Maury Regional Healthcare System in Columbia was named chairman-elect of the board and will assume the role of chairman during the 2016 Annual Meeting in Nashville next fall. Watson has 33 years of healthcare experience, including 15 years of clinical work as a nuclear medicine technologist. In addition to serving as CEO at Maury Regional Healthcare System, he has served as CEO at St. Mary’s Medical Centers of Campbell and Scott counties and Baptist Hospital West in the Knoxville area, and CEO at Bradley Memorial Hospital, Cleveland. He is a fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives, and a board member of THA and Hospital Alliance of Tennessee.
Reginald Coopwood, MD, president and CEO, Regional One Health, Memphis, will continue as immediate past chairman in 2016. He also will serve as the speaker of the House of Delegates.
A number of Middle Tennesseans were also recognized during the annual meeting for outstanding contributions to the field. Dawn Parker, director of laboratory services, Saint Thomas River Park Hospital in McMinnville; Ted Stubblefield, board member, NorthCrest Medical Center in Springfield; and Kara Adams, volunteer, Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt all received Meritorious Service Awards.
Two Patient Safety Leadership Awards were presented. Jenny Slayton, RN, MSN, executive director of quality improvement, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, was honored for taking extraordinary and innovative steps to make patient safety and quality a top priority at the medical center. Christopher Edwards, MD, chief medical officer; Ginger Dickens, BSN, clinical care nursing manager; and Lynnelle Murrell, RN, director, infection prevention, for Maury Regional Medical Center, were recognized for their efforts to reduce catheter-associated urinary tract infections at the hospital.
April Kapu, DNP, ACNP-BC, FAANP, associate nursing officer, director of advanced practice, Center for Nursing Excellence at Vanderbilt University Medical Center received the Clinical Nurse of Distinction Award. Wesley Littrell, FACHE, chief strategy officer and vice president, business development for Community Health Systems received an American College of Healthcare Executives Senior Level Award.
