FORT WAYNE, Ind.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Extension Healthcare announced today that it has hired Jill Vavala, RN, MBA, as its Chief Nursing Officer. Jill’s combined background as a nurse with extensive knowledge of the healthcare environment and industry as it relates to information technology and clinical integration make her a valuable addition to Extension Healthcare’s leadership team.
“Advanced alarm systems management requires a multidisciplinary approach that bridges the gaps between IT, the nursing informatics department, and the clinical providers and executives,” said Todd Plesko, CEO at Extension Healthcare. “Jill’s expertise will assist hospitals in establishing a baseline of knowledge of their existing alarm challenges, and a foundation to initiate an improvement strategy designed to comply with The Joint Commission’s new National Patient Safety Goal on clinical alarms.”
As CNO, Jill will work closely with clients, prospective clients, media, industry influencers, healthcare associations and nursing leadership groups. Her primary objective will be to further awareness of the next generation alarm safety and event response enterprise platform developed by Extension Healthcare for hospitals. Additionally, she will act as the voice of the Extension clinical team during product development to continuously promote innovation aimed at improving workflow processes, meaningful communication among care providers, patient safety, and optimization of technology deployment and utilization.
“I have over 28 years of healthcare experience supporting healthcare leaders in developing strategies for promoting evidence-based best practices and quality outcomes, nursing efficiencies and care coordination, safe and cost effective patient care as well as clinical and patient satisfaction,” said Vavala. “I joined Extension Healthcare because their offering to support nurses is compelling and can truly transform the way care is delivered. The issues around alarm fatigue will continue to evolve as the presence of integrated technologies grows. My vision is for clinicians to embrace and respond to alarms with a renewed passion.”
Prior to joining Extension, Jill gained valuable clinical insight as a nurse focused on acute patient care at both Kaiser and Scripps-Mercy Healthcare Systems in San Diego. As a nurse, new opportunities were presented that allowed her to expand her expertise beyond the bedside, which created a natural progression into her next role as Chief Nurse Executive for CareFusion. CareFusion is a leading manufacturer of products designed to minimize preventable patient harm around medication administration and to support efficient workflows through data and integration. Her previous experience also includes Cardinal Health and B. Braun Medical, collaboration with Oridion, Massimo, and Cerner, and active participation in healthcare associations, advisory groups and committees, e.g. AONE Technology Committee.
Connect with Nurse Jill on LinkedIn and visit Extension Healthcare at the upcoming AAMI conference in booth # 111.
About Extension Healthcare
Extension Healthcare is leading the industry into the next generation of clinical alarm safety systems. Extension has merged advanced alarm management software with an innovative communications approach that enables clinical collaboration to occur in response to patient-related critical events via event driven secure text messaging and voice. The Extension Engage™ solution provides an advanced clinical rules and workflow engine that delivers intelligent notifications based on key contextual alarm, patient, and care team data. These intelligent notifications are securely routed to the appropriate staff members via their preferred communications device to support informed clinical engagement across the complete hospital enterprise. Through Extension Engage, clinicians can instantly initiate informed responses to critical events through secure text response and voice call and engage their patients and other members of the care team from any location. Extension Engage Medical Device Alarm Notification has been granted FDA 510k Class II clearance for secondary notification.
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