Becker’s Hospital Review Names Ruth Ragusa to Its List of 50 Experts in Patient Safety

OCEANSIDE, N.Y. - May 22, 2014 - PRLog -- Becker's Hospital Review has named Ruth Ragusa, RN, vice president of organizational effectiveness at South Nassau Communities Hospital, to its 2014 List of "50 Experts Leading the Field of Patient Safety" in the United States.
The list includes individuals at healthcare organizations, national organizations, universities and other institutions who are devoted to improving patient safety and quality of care.  The leaders listed include healthcare providers, advocates, administrators, researchers and professors who have demonstrated a commitment to patient safety through their body of work, personal accomplishments and organizational leadership.  Members of the list do not and cannot pay to be included on this list.  Becker's Hospital Review is a Chicago-based publication focusing on hospital and healthcare news and business advice. The primary audience for the publication is hospital executives and healthcare industry leaders.

         “Under Ruth’s leadership, South Nassau has been an industry leader in developing and implementing protocol and procedures that have improved the performance of our staff and the delivery of our services,” said Richard J. Murphy, President & CEO of South Nassau.  “Her commitment to excellence and teamwork inspires our organization to build on our standards and achieve greater levels of effectiveness and quality.”

As South Nassau’s vice president of organizational effectiveness, Ms. Ragusa’s responsibilities include performance improvement, risk management, infection prevention, regulatory affairs, home care, pharmacy services and other clinical support services. Additionally, she is responsible for providing administrative support for the departments of Pediatrics, Anesthesia, Medicine and other services.

Ms. Ragusa also spearheads South Nassau’s participation in national and regional quality improvement initiatives.  In the past year, South Nassau has been named a Joint Commission Top Performer on Key Quality Measures; received Joint Commission Advanced Certification for Primary Stroke Centers; received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association Get With The Guidelines® Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award; and, for the eighth consecutive year, a spot on the prestigious HomeCare Elite™ listing for South Nassau’s Home Care, as one of the top 500 home health care providers in the United States.

Ms. Ragusa, who joined South Nassau in 2001 as vice president of performance improvement, has more than two decades of experience in health care administration.  Before coming to South Nassau, Ms. Ragusa served as Director of Critical Care Nursing, Director of Nursing Quality, and Vice President of Performance Management & Education at Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn. She also served as Director of Professional Services at Lutheran Medical Center’s Lutheran Augustana Center for Extended Care & Rehabilitation.  Ms. Ragusa earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing and master’s degree in healthcare administration from the Long Island University/C.W. Post Center.She resides in Old Brookville, NY, with her husband and two children.

Designated a Magnet® hospital by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), South Nassau® Communities Hospital is one of the region’s largest hospitals, with 435 beds, more than 900 physicians and 3,000 employees.  Located in Oceanside, NY, the hospital is an acute-care, not-for-profit teaching hospital that provides state-of-the-art care in cardiac, oncologic, orthopedic, bariatric, pain management, mental health and emergency services.  In addition to its extensive outpatient specialty centers, South Nassau provides emergency and elective angioplasty, and is the only hospital on Long Island with the Novalis Tx™ and Gamma Knife® radiosurgery technologies.  South Nassau is a designated Stroke Center by the New York State Department of Health and Comprehensive Community Cancer Center by the American College of Surgeons and is an accredited center of the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Association and Quality Improvement Program.  In addition, the hospital has been awarded the Joint Commission’s gold seal of approval as a Top Performer on Key Quality Measures, including heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care; and disease-specific care for hip and joint replacement, wound care and end-stage renal disease. For more information, visit www.southnassau.org.