The Brattleboro Retreat has announced that Kirk Woodring, LICSW, will rejoin the hospital’s executive leadership team starting November 3rd as Vice President of Quality and Clinical Services. He returns to the Retreat where he previously served as an inpatient social worker and as Senior Director of Access, Evaluation, Ambulatory, and Security Services.
For the past 20 months, Woodring has served as Vice President of Clinical Services at the Center for Human Development based in Springfield, MA. During his tenure at CHD he led the organization through a number of critical changes, including implementation of a new electronic health record, expansion of the Central Registration call center, development of Practice Management in outpatient operations, tremendous growth in In Home Therapy and Therapeutic Mentoring Services, and recruitment and development of new leadership at five outpatient programs.
In his new role at the Retreat, Woodring will focus his initial efforts on working with members of the hospital’s Quality and Risk Management team along with an outside consultant to launch a new Systems Improvement Agreement (SIA) process in collaboration with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
"I am extremely excited about returning to the Retreat,” said Woodring. “The clinical and support staff are among the most talented and dedicated I have ever worked with, and I am confident that the systems we are working to put in place will assure patients, families, regulatory and accrediting bodies, and communities throughout New England, that we remain the region’s leading psychiatric and addiction treatment hospital."
Woodring has an undergraduate degree in Public Administration from Western Michigan University and a Masters in Social Work from the Smith College School for Social Work, where he has been an Adjunct Professor teaching graduate courses in group therapy and crisis intervention since 1999. In 2011 he co-authored the book "Assessing the Risk: Suicidal Behavior in the Hospital Environment of Care" which is used by hospital emergency departments and medical surgical units across the US and Canada.
The Brattleboro Retreat, founded in 1834, is a not-for-profit, regional specialty psychiatric hospital and addictions treatment center, providing a full range of diagnostic, therapeutic and rehabilitation services for individuals of all ages and their families. Recognized as a national leader in the treatment mental illness and addiction, the Brattleboro Retreat offers a high quality, individualized, comprehensive continuum of care including inpatient, partial hospitalization, residential and outpatient treatment.