Tulane Health promotes Childress to nursing, operations leadership role

New Orleans - Tulane Health System has promoted nursing veteran Ron Childress to serve as the vice president of operations and associate chief nursing officer at its Lakeside Hospital campus in Metairie. There, Childress will provide both clinical and operational oversight and lead the hospital's patient care, quality and service initiatives.

"Ron is an accomplished nursing leader who has already proven his ability to provide strategic leadership at Tulane Medical Center in the areas of quality care, process improvement and patient satisfaction," said Ruth Kain, Tulane Health System's chief nursing officer. "We are thrilled to elevate his involvement to the next level, and we look forward to what he will accomplish at Tulane Lakeside."

Childress has served as the associate chief nursing officer at Tulane Medical Center in downtown New Orleans since January of this year. He recently completed the prestigious LCMC Health Executive Development Program, and this new role will provide additional leadership opportunities for him, Kain said. Tulane Health System is operated by LCMC Health.

Lakeside Hospital has recently expanded many of its adult services, adding in recent months an adult intensive care unit, a renovated medical-surgical unit and a new, computer-guided personalized surgery system to increase the accuracy of shoulder replacement surgeries.

Joining Tulane in 2003 as a medical-surgical unit nurse, Childress was promoted to a clinical supervisor role in 2005. He quickly rose through the ranks to become a clinical nurse manager and director of medical surgical nursing. In his previous roles, Childress achieved significant goals related to nursing engagement, quality and patient safety, and he served as the lead for the rollout of a new nursing clinical documentation system.

Childress earned an associate degree in nursing from Pearl River Community College in Poplarville, Mississippi, and a master's in nursing from Loyola University, New Orleans. He is also a certified TeamSTEPPS master trainer and a member of the Louisiana State Nursing Association.