HHC VP Assumes Top Role at Connecticut Hospital Association

June 30, 2016

David A. Whitehead, senior vice president and chief strategy and transformation officer for Hartford HealthCare, has been named chairman of the Connecticut Hospital (CHA) Association Board of Trustees. Whitehead began his two-year term at the Annual Meeting on June 28.

He succeeds Bruce D. Cummings, President and Chief Executive Officer at Lawrence and Memorial Hospital.

For more information about the CHA 2016-2017 Board of Trustees, visit the CHA website. 

Healthcare Heroes

Also at the meeting Dr. Lenworth Jacobs, Dr. Hank Schwartz and Jeanne Kessler, RN were named HealthCare Heroes. The three were selected from hundreds of nominees from hospitals throughout the state.(pictured below)

Jacobs, director of Hartford Hospital’s Trauma Program, was recognized for his work in establishing the Hartford Consensus, a group of national first-responder experts, who developed recommendations to educate and train the public in assisting victims – by stopping the bleeding – before first responders arrive following a mass-casualty event. The Consensus ultimately received recognition and support from the White House, which nationalized a Stop the Bleed Campaign. Consensus recommendations have been distributed globally.

Schwartz, psychiatrist-in-chief at the Institute of Living and vice president of the Hartford HealthCare Behavioral Health Network, was recognized for his state and national leadership in crafting public policy and launching a national dialogue on mental health following the Sandy Hook tragedy. He became nationally known for his expertise and his work to stop the stigma of mental illness.

Kessler, a nurse manager at the IOL, was recognized for a variety of work, including her studies and treatment of dementia patients and her extensive work with and education of volunteers, including establishing a patient safety/fall prevention program (resulting in an 80 percent decrease in falls), a geriatric visitation program for those with dementia, and the Meal Mates program. She also was recognized for piloting a new volunteer program, Personal Touch, to determine whether or not having a multi-trained volunteer assigned to a specific unit for an entire shift is more effective than having a variety of volunteers.