Patient Care and Excellent Outcomes Are Her passions
A nurse with a track record of excellence in care and leadership, Lori Armstrong, will join Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Medical Center as Chief Nursing Officer.
Armstrong returns to Northern California after previously serving in nursing leadership positions for some of the country’s most renowned women’s and children’s hospitals in the country, including: Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, and Sloane Hospital For Women in New York City. During her time with these hospitals she led system-wide initiatives that increased quality, patient satisfaction, and staff performance and retention.
“I’m so glad to be back in California,” Armstrong says, “especially after spending some winters on the East Coast.”
“I really do have a laser focus on delivering exemplary patient and family care,” she says. “I have built my career on transforming leadership teams and aligning healthcare facilities to positively impact patient and family outcomes.”
Born in New York, Armstrong started her nursing career caring for some of hospitals’ most-fragile patients: newborns in special Neonatal Intensive Care Units. She was a NICU nurse in Manhasset, New York, then again a few years later at Chicago’s historic Michael Reese Hospital. She became a NICU nurse manager at Chicago’s University of Illinois Hospital, and later, became Director of Neonatal Services at the Carolinas HealthCare System in Charlotte, North Carolina
Armstrong is not only a nurse leader, but also an innovator. In the late 1990’s she and a team re-designed a standard the “headwall” of a neonatal intensive care unit. In a modern hospital, the headwall is where oxygen lines, electrical outlets, and monitoring equipment is organized at head of the bed. Armstrong’s design standardized a similar arrangement for the isolettes used in the NICU.
Armstrong came to Stanford in 2001, serving seven years in nursing and neonatal intensive care.
“I met my husband-to-be at Stanford,” Armstrong said. “We were married in Carmel. It was very beautiful and I hoped I could come back to California if we ever moved.”
They moved to New York City and finally Texas, where Armstrong was named Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer of the of the Texas Children’s Hospital, one of the leading children’s hospitals in the nation.
“Lori’s experience in leadership positions, for some of the preeminent health care organizations around the country make her a natural fit for Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara,” said Chris Boyd, Sr. Vice President and Area Manager at KP Santa Clara. “Her passion for the patients and their families, along with her vision and proven team building experience will help Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara remain a leader, not only in our local service area, but across the region.”
Armstrong has a 25-year-old son and a Boston terrier named “Joey”. She has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Nursing, and is completing her Doctorate now
“Kaiser Permanente is a model that many organizations across the country are trying to emulate, and the opportunity to join this leading organization is something I’m proud of – and something I’m anxious to immerse myself in,” she said.