Bon Secours Health System Appoints Andrea Schmid As System Vice President And Chief Nursing Officer

Marriottsville, Maryland, October 1, 2007 -- Today, Bon Secours Health System (BSHSI) announced the appointment of Andrea Schmid, MSN, MBA, Ph.D., as Vice President/ Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) for the eight-state system. Dr. Schmid will assume her new role effective November 5, 2007.

As CNO, Dr. Schmid will report to BSHSI chief medical officer, Marlon Priest, M.D. She will serve as a key member of the BSHSI Executive Management Team (EMT) and as an integral member of the clinical transformation team working to facilitate efforts in the execution and delivery of strategic initiatives around improving quality and clinical performance for patient care delivery. These include enhancement of patient care services, improving clinical quality and safety, developing nursing leadership, serving as a champion for Bon Secours Connect CareTM the system’s $150 million electronic health record initiative, and working with the local systems on the recruitment/retention of patient care providers. In partnership with the system executive and nursing leadership, Dr. Schmid will provide leadership support for initiatives to provide the highest quality holistic care delivery; transform patient care delivery across the system, enhance leadership to create positive work environments, and demonstrate increased performance in quality, patient and staff satisfaction, and clinical care outcomes.

Dr. Schmid, as CNO, will provide internal consulting, education, networking, and benchmarking opportunities for local system executive team members and the Nursing Collaborative in an effort to transform care delivery across the system.

Dr. Schmid has 25 years of experience in nursing management and leadership, including being a Magnet Appraiser Fellow. She comes to BSHSI from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) where she serves as Vice President, Patient Care Services and Chief Nursing Officer.

Prior to her current position, Dr. Schmid’s career consisted of progressive nursing leadership roles at both Shadyside Hospital, where she first started her career as a nurse, and at UPMC Presbyterian. “Dr. Schmid is known to be clinically astute and both a nurse and patient advocate. She has driven team work, collaborative practice and the hardwiring of “Quality” at UPMC. Her commitment to quality, safety, and the nursing profession has been instrumental in creating the “Hospital of the Future,” today, at UPMC Presbyterian” stated Dr. Marlon Priest.

Sister Anne M. Lutz, BSHSI executive vice president for Sponsorship stated, “Dr. Schmid is an exceptional leader. We are very excited that she will be joining Bon Secours. Her strong values combined with her depth and breadth of knowledge and experiences are well suited to help BSHSI implement its initiatives around clinical transformation.”

Dr. Schmid has published several articles and has made numerous presentations at national and local symposia. Dr. Schmid earned her nursing diploma from the Shadyside School of Nursing, received her Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from Carlow College, Masters of Science in Nursing and Business Administration from Duquesne University and her Doctorate in Nursing from the University of Pittsburgh. She received the President’s Award for Patient Safety at UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside for the development of a Positive Patient Identification Program for Medication Administration and was awarded the Johnson & Johnson Wharton Fellow Management for Nursing Executives.

Bon Secours Health System, Inc. based in Marriottsville, Maryland, is a $2.4 billion dollar not-for-profit Catholic health system that owns, manages or joint ventures 18 acute care, 5 long term care, 5 assisted living and independent living and other facilities, primarily on the East Coast. Bon Secours Health System consists of more than 17,000 caregivers helping people in 10 communities in 7 states. Its vision is to be recognized for its leadership in justice, transforming the communities in which it serves and works into places of health and hope, and being a prophetic voice for systemic U.S. health reform and a more humane world.