Judi Henson named chief nursing officer at Adena Health System

Judi Henson, a longtime nurse administrator, has been named the new Chief Nursing Officer for the Adena Health System.

Prior to accepting the post, she was Director of Clinical Services at the Adena Greenfield Medical Center, where she was responsible for the Emergency Department, Inpatient Surgical Services and the center’s Specialty Clinic.

She also led AGMC as it implemented telemedicine technology and served as a liaison with Adena Pike Medical Center, helping with the onboarding of its nursing staff.

“I’m excited to have been chosen as the new Chief Nursing Officer. High on my list of priorities will be to improve morale and ensure our nursing departments are staffed appropriately,” she said.

The new CNO said she also will be striving to develop a “culture of safety.”

“Nothing is more important to me than patient safety… Folks who have worked with me know that I can be ruthless when advocating for patients. That’s what I want for the Adena Health System, a nursing staff that will really go to the mat for their patients.”

Before joining AGMC in August 2010, she was Chief Nursing Officer and Vice President of Patient Care Services at the CMH Regional Health System, which includes Clinton Memorial Hospital in Wilmington, OH.

In that role, she led the patient care team in creating and launching a strategic plan for nursing that included shared governance councils, clinical ladders, a patient care ambassador rounding program, an inpatient Hospitalist Program and a Rapid Response System.

Also, working with the University of Tennessee and Institute for Healthcare Improvement, she championed an Emergency Department project that resulted in decreased “door-to-doc” times, which helped reduce patient length of stay and the number of patients leaving without being seen.

Other past roles include Director of Case Management and Manager of Obstetrics and Women's Health Education. Altogether, she worked 24 years at CMH Regional.

“I loved CMH, but the hospital was being sold to a for-profit company from Tennessee. The time was right to make a move.”

Henson has a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Ohio State University and a master’s degree in health administration from Central Michigan University. She completed black belt training and is expected to be certified this month.

Asked why she pursued nursing, she said, “I wish I had some heartwarming story about that, but the truth is that I have always been a bit of a science geek and it was my fascination with human anatomy and physiology that steered me toward nursing.”