52.7 F
Laguna Hills
Wednesday, Feb 12, 2025
-Advertisement-

Laureen Driscoll: Nurse-Turned-CEO

Laureen Driscoll’s background as a nurse has inspired her to decentralize decision-making in hospitals closer to where the care is happening.

She was named chief executive of Providence South Division two years ago and led the restructuring of the nonprofit hospital system’s South Division into four service areas.

It now comprises Northern California, Los Angeles Valley, Los Angeles Coastal and Orange County/High Desert, with Brian Helleland overseeing the latter.

Under the new structure, service area leaders work together with hospital executives, allowing local hospitals to drive the strategy.

Driscoll was recognized at the Business Journal’s 30th annual Women in Business Awards on Oct. 30 for overseeing all of Providence’s 17 acute care hospitals in California, which employ more than 40,000 and generated $9.3 billion in revenue in 2023.

“I learned to focus on my core strengths as a nurse, the things that brought me through touching patients’ lives every day, through care and presence today,” Driscoll said in front of a crowd of 850 people at the Irvine Marriott.

“Being my authentic self brings me joy and provides the foundation for being a visionary, innovative and strategic leader.”

Driscoll’s work is impacting millions of people every day, according to Annette Walker, president of City of Hope Orange County.

“Through her work, she’s aligned healthcare goals across multiple regions, making care more accessible, preventable and equitable,” Walker said before presenting the award to Driscoll.

Breaking Out of the “Good Nurse” Mold

Driscoll started out as a registered nurse in Portland, Maine.

She received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Southern Maine and a master’s degree in nursing administration from Northeastern University.

As a bedside nurse and charge nurse, Driscoll said she didn’t feel included in the decision making and sought out leadership roles to have a larger impact.

“I got very frustrated with decisions that I perceived were coming from suits in offices that didn’t know how things worked and made it more difficult for us to do the right thing,” Driscoll told the Business Journal.

She came up through the traditional nursing leadership pathway, moving from a floor nurse to a nurse manager.

In 2010, she was recruited to Providence Swedish in Seattle as a nursing director and advanced to chief operating officer during her seven-year tenure.

Driscoll said the role gave her a broader scope of healthcare that included overseeing an adult intensive care unit and telemetry.

Even with this experience, Driscoll found that she needed to return to school if she wanted to further advance in her career and got an MBA at the University of Washington’s Michael G. Foster School of Business in 2013.

“I had to break out of the traditional role of being seen as a good nurse; that I can lead teams well beyond nursing operations,” Driscoll said.

The hospital industry is still dominated by men who either have business degrees or are physicians, according to Driscoll.

She believes nurses make just as effective leaders, having an understanding of hospital operations and how things work in tandem with cross functional teams.

“I can connect with people and help our frontline leaders because I’ve been in their roles and know what challenges that they face,” Driscoll said.

Advocating for Caregiver Safety

Driscoll still likes to visit Maine but said she doesn’t miss having to shovel snow off her car every day.

In her spare time, she’s active on the boards of the Orange County Business Council and the California Hospital Association (CHA).

One of the things CHA is currently advocating for is legislation that would make violence towards healthcare workers in the emergency department a federal offense.

She’s also passionate about other nonprofits including the American Cancer Society and March of Dimes, which focuses on maternal and infant health, since her own two children were treated in the neonatal intensive care unit.

At Providence, a $712 million expansion of Mission Hospital’s South Orange County operations is underway. It was first announced in 2022.

Driscoll said that they’re finishing and finalizing the designs for a new patient care tower with roughly 75 beds, which is expected to be completed by 2030.

“It’s a larger growing area in Orange County, so we’re working really hard to meet the need,” Driscoll said.

Last week, Driscoll visited Providence St. Joseph Hospital in Orange as part of her routine schedule of visiting the South Division hospitals.

While there, she celebrated with the team for completing their 90th kidney transplant this year and is on track to performing 100 by the end of this year.

The program ranked No. 1 in the state out of 20 other centers by the Scientific Registry for Transplant Recipients, according to officials.

Providence was also the first in California to acquire a newly-approved ultrasound technology for treating liver cancer and has trained Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian’s team on how to use it.

Want more from the best local business newspaper in the country?

Sign-up for our FREE Daily eNews update to get the latest Orange County news delivered right to your inbox!

Sonia Chung
Sonia Chung
Sonia Chung joined the Orange County Business Journal in 2021 as their Marketing Creative Director. In her role she creates all visual content as it relates to the marketing needs for the sales and events teams. Her responsibilities include the creation of marketing materials for six annual corporate events, weekly print advertisements, sales flyers in correspondence to the editorial calendar, social media graphics, PowerPoint presentation decks, e-blasts, and maintains the online presence for Orange County Business Journal’s corporate events.
-Advertisement-

Featured Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-

Related Articles

-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-