Model nurse and patient advocate
Kathy Webster was called a “nurse”™s nurse and a patient”™s greatest advocate” in 2007 by The New York Times magazine.
Four years later, it appears she hasn”™t slowed down.
Recently honored for 35 years of service at Hudson Valley Hospital Center in Cortlandt Manor, the vice president of patient services and registered nurse has played an integral role in the medical facility”™s three-year, $100-million expansion that was completed last summer.
Webster helped fuel the plans for a brand new, comprehensive cancer center on campus, which is scheduled to open this October.
“Typically, patients get diagnoses and have to go to this doctor and that doctor and it”™s totally overwhelming,” she said. “With this center, we”™ll have fusion and radiation oncology in the same building with various other cancer specialists in connection with the hospital.”
The cancer center and adjoining medical office building will be 54,000 square feet with an estimated $12 million cost of construction.
“It”™s very challenging,” admitted Webster of the impact of health care reform on patient practices. “It”™s complex. The pressure to move patients from one level of care to another level of care and a safe transition out of the hospital means having to work with third-party payers to facilitate continuum of care issues.”
Patient safety remains her No. 1 concern, she said.
“I envisioned myself in a hospital setting for as long as I can remember,” said the nurse who also serves as co-president of the New York Organization of Nurse Executives. “Nurses spend more time with the patient than anyone else in the hospital and have a significant impact on that patient”™s experience.”
Under Webster”™s watch, Hudson Valley Hospital Center obtained a Magnet Nursing designation in 2007, which recognizes excellence in nursing and which only 4 percent of hospitals in the nation obtained at the time, she said.
She is now supervising the submission of 3,000 pages worth of application materials for the re-designation of Magnet status, which must be applied for every four years to be active.
In addition to plowing through paperwork, Webster helped create an in-hospital unit for sick infants because “there”™s nothing more devastating than for a baby to be transferred to another facility when the mother is still here.”
Webster”™s longtime dedication to her hospital employer has earned her recognition.
“We have been extremely fortunate to have had Kathy serving us these many years,” commented John Federspiel, president and CEO of Hudson Valley Hospital Center, at the hospital”™s recent service awards celebration. “She is universally respected by her peers at hospitals throughout the region and she is an amazing communicator.”