DAWN FUNK

Nursing leader for an 180-bed organization with 340 FTE and progressive responsibility across clinical operations, quality, safety, workforce strategy, financial stewardship, and regulatory readiness. Executive Director of Patient Care Services and Interim Chief Nursing Officer, partnering with senior leadership to align staffing, shared governance, and patient care priorities with organizational goals. Strong record of survey success supporting compliance and continuous improvement.

• Strategic nursing leadership: Current and prior Interim Chief Nursing Officer experience with responsibility for continuity of executive nursing leadership and strategic goal alignment. Developed a three-year Nursing Strategic Plan focused on quality, patient experience, nursing recruitment, and retention.
• Collaborated with the CMO and Director of Hospitalist on Market Place Rounding and Trauma program structure and support.
• Team calls with sister organization Nurse Executives to systemize Professional Development, Case Management, and Labor and Delivery practices.
• Clinical Quality & Patient Safety: Led systemwide quality initiatives that reduced hospital-acquired conditions and strengthened evidence-based clinical practice. Reduced CAUTI from 3 to 1 in FY26; reduced CLABSI from 4 to 1 in FY26; reduced CDIFF from 18 to 10 in FY26; reduced HAPI from 31 cases in FY22 to 17 in FY26; reduced falls from 174 in FY22 to 150 in FY26; and reduced non-Foley-related UTI from 18 to 3 in FY26. Improved patient flow by staffing the Emergency Department effectively and standardizing clinical practices across units. Chaired the Patient Throughput Committee, involving a cross-section of departments and leaders, to problem-solve and remove barriers to admissions and discharges.
• Workforce Transformation: Oversight across medical-surgical, cardiac and neuro care, case management, inpatient rehabilitation, labor and delivery, nursery, staffing, transport, therapy services, wound care, pain management, and telemetry; executive oversight has also extended to ICU and Emergency Department. Improved Nurse retention, leadership effectiveness, and employee engagement through workforce redesign, leadership development, and shared governance with NEPC. Successfully negotiated a 2025 nursing contract without a strike. Mentored executive nurse leaders at a sister hospital to create safe staffing while aligning productivity and nurse care hours. Reduced 2023 mandatory RN overtime from 12 shifts monthly to 0 in 2026.
• Quality & Accreditation Readiness: Leadership experience with CIHQ and JACHO with successful survey completions, Leapfrog requirements, Department of Health complaint response, Magnet journey activities, Baldridge gap analysis, infection prevention, and policy standardization. Strengthened compliance and clinical accountability with continual survey readiness and unit-based task force development.
• Workforce engagement and development: Recruitment and retention strategy, agency reduction, shared governance, leadership hiring, manager mentoring, succession-focused development, staff huddles, and nurse residency/mentorship programming. Reduced agency from 62 nurses in 2022 to 5 in 2026 by incentivizing and developing a Nurse Residency Program to better support new nurses. Chaired the Patient Experience Committee; provided monthly education to leaders and frontline staff to increase scores. Three of five inpatient units have improved rankings, and two have maintained their ranking in the 99th percentile.
• Financial Stewardship: Responsible for $165.5 million budget for all nursing unit budgets, productivity, position control, contract review and negotiations, union negotiations, staffing optimization, and cross-hospital alignment aimed at reducing waste. Decreased LOS from 4.72 on the medical-surgical unit to 4.2 and from 3.59 on the telemetry unit to 3.26 by introducing Market Place and bedside rounding. Review all nursing positions on Position Control for necessity and meeting required productivity standards.

• Nurse Executive, Board Certified (NE-BC), 2020 - Present
• Accredited Case Manager - Registered Nurse (ACM-RN), 2022 - Present
• Registered Nurse licenses: Pennsylvania and Maryland
• Board service: VNA Visiting Nurses Association, Indiana, PA; Indiana University Master's Nursing Program Advisory Board, Indiana, PA
• Memberships: American Nurses Association; American Case Management Association

• Secured $3.1M in grant funding for community healthcare initiatives through presentation to HSCRC.
• Supported Baldridge gap analysis with a trained assessor for two organizations and helped Meritus Medical Center achieve Magnet status through documentation and staff preparation.
• Successfully participated in union contract negotiations, contract review/oversight for inpatient rehabilitation, agency reduction, and leadership hiring/mentorship.
• Additional experience: Clinical Manager, Cardiac Rehab Program, Meritus Medical Center; led program recertification in both a Cardiac Rehab Program and Wound Care Center, added Pulmonary Rehab, and adopted a new charting system.