Gay Landstrom, PhD (c), RN, NEA-BC, has been appointed Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) for the Dartmouth-Hitchcock health system.
Landstrom joins Dartmouth-Hitchcock from CHE Trinity Health in Livonia, MI, where she is currently Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer of the Trinity Health Group. Her responsibilities at Trinity include patient care services throughout CHE Trinity Health's nationwide network of 46 hospitals and numerous long term care, home care and outpatient facilities. Landstrom, who begins at Dartmouth-Hitchcock on July 28, succeeds Linda J. von Reyn PhD, RN, who retired in April.
“As we work to create a sustainable health system and improve the lives of the people and communities we serve for generations to come, the importance of the role of nursing cannot be overstated,” said Dartmouth-Hitchcock CEO and President Dr. James N. Weinstein. “Nurses and allied health professionals have long been at the foundation of health care delivery; today, as we integrate new care delivery and health management systems, such as telemedicine and in-home monitoring, the role of nurses will be even greater. Gay’s experience and passion will be enormously valuable as we work toward an optimal professional experience for our nursing staff and optimal patient experience for those we serve.”
As CNO, Landstrom will be a key member of Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s senior leadership team, reporting directly to Weinstein. She will have responsibility for inpatient and outpatient nursing across the system, which represents almost 30 percent of Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s workforce, and will be intensively involved in three core areas of population health, value over volume, and succeeding in new payment models.
“This hiring is the culmination of a yearlong national search process that brought us several wonderful, accomplished candidates,” noted Weinstein. “Those on the search team and others involved in the interview process, however, felt that Gay’s energy, experience, record of accomplishment and collaboration, and keen understanding and enthusiasm about the path Dartmouth-Hitchcock is on, distinguished her clearly as our top choice.”
At Trinity Health, Landstrom has overseen a number of key initiatives, including the creation of a Chief Nursing Officer development framework for the 30 CNOs who report to her, working to reduce CNO turnover and to prepare CNOs as strategic partners within the leadership teams of their hospitals. She also co-led a Sepsis Collaborative within the system, working to improve outcomes for patients; created a Nursing Professional Practice Conference attended by 900 nurses annually, and co-led the design and implementation of Trinity Health’s “Just Culture” initiative.
Landstrom’s other experience with Trinity Health includes service as the chief nurse at two Ministry Organizations: Mercy Health Muskegon (1998-2006) and St. Joseph Mercy Oakland (1994-98). As the Chief Nursing Officer of Mercy Health Muskegon, she redesigned the patient care delivery and care management models, and helped implement a Leadership Development Institute. During her time as Vice President, Patient Care Services and Chief Nurse Executive at St. Joseph Mercy Oakland, Landstrom was involved in the development of the Cancer Care Center and the Joint Care Center programs, a redesign of the patient care delivery model, and the startup and expansion of an MHA-recognized Healthy Start program.
Landstrom received her bachelor's degree in nursing from Rush University in Chicago. While serving as a staff nurse and assistant head nurse at Rush, she completed her master's degree in nursing administration at the University of Illinois at Chicago, going on to serve in nurse manager and director of nursing roles in the Chicago area. She currently is attending the University of Michigan, working on completion of a PhD in nursing. She will be relocating to New Hampshire this summer with her family.