Jun 22, 2017 | Sterling Surgical Hospital

(Slidell) – With a keen eye on providing their community with an unrivaled level of surgical care, the team at Sterling Surgical Hospital is implementing a unique model of nursing leadership to best meet the needs of their patients and their growing hospital.

In place of the typical hospital hierarchy, the new clinical team has nurse leaders for each of the hospital’s main areas of service. The four charge nurses will be working alongside a Director of Nursing who will serve as a point-of-contact for the whole team. All the managers were promoted from within to their new positions.

“We knew we were already working with the gold-standard in nursing care right here in the hospital,” says Kevin Schneider, Managing Partner and Chairman of the Board. “We saw an opportunity to pull some of our top-notch team members into new roles that help us further streamline our process and provide the very best service for our patients, their families, our physicians, and our staff as well. We like to embrace every possibility to offer our staff growth and empowerment opportunities.”

Newly minted Director of Nursing, Margaret Morrison Soileau, wasted no time setting the tone for the clinical team’s constant striving to put forth their very best. “I cannot say enough about the positive culture our organization possesses; it truly is second to none,” Soileau says. “I feel fortunate and excited to be part of Sterling as we are going through an evolutionary period of growth and continued success.”

The other members of the nursing leadership team are:

• Katie Diaz, RN, who will be overseeing Pre-Operative services and Post-Anesthesia Care. Her position includes ensuring optimization of care for the entire door-to-door experience at Sterling Surgical.
• Melissa Prendergast, RN, is supervising Med-Surgery including pre-admission, in-patient stays, lab work and physical therapy.
• Angela Murray, BSN, is in charge of the Operating Room and Sterilization.
• Terri McCoy, RN, continues her work managing the boundless requirements of Quality Resources, Accreditation and Staff Education. 

Schneider says that in addition to their new duties, each of the nursing team leaders will still be handling direct patient care. Sterling feels strongly that keeping a hand in the operation of the hospital allows the charge nurses to better understand patient and staff needs and prevent issues before they crop up.

Sterling Surgical’s Project Manager, D. Michael Lamb, says the move broadens the management style and continues the open-door policy that he, Schneider and all the hospital leadership extend to anyone working there. “With this structure, any one of our staff knows he or she has multiple people to go with questions and concerns, big or little,” he says. “This guarantees that unparalleled, instantaneous face time with leadership, which is frankly unseen in typical hospital settings. That kind of immediate responsiveness trickles down and boosts our quality overall, not only in our employee interactions but most importantly in our patient care each and every day.”