Nursing Institute Appoints New Associate Chief Nursing Officer of Emergency Services

The Stanley Shalom Zielony Institute for Nursing Excellence announces Barbara Morgan, MSN, RN, NE-BC, as Cleveland Clinic health system’s associate chief nursing officer (ACNO) of emergency services. Morgan will also serve as director of nursing for the Cleveland Clinic main campus emergency department.

In her roles, she will provide strategic and operational leadership for Cleveland Clinic’s emergency nursing services, while overseeing clinical and nursing operations at Cleveland Clinic main campus. Morgan has been serving as the interim ACNO of emergency services and as the interim clinical director of emergency services at main campus since last fall.

Driven to influence outcomes and quality, she is a board-certified nurse executive who has extensive leadership experience in complex academic medical centers in a variety of clinical areas – most notably, emergency services.

Morgan rejoined Cleveland Clinic health system in May 2017, after six years with University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center (UHCMC), where she served as director of emergency services and critical care. Prior to that, Morgan was with Cleveland Clinic for 10 years, serving with distinction in the areas of emergency services and critical care nursing, including transport.

“Barb is an exceptional addition to our Executive Nursing Leadership team, and we are fortunate to have her,” says Executive Chief Nursing Officer K. Kelly Hancock, DNP, RN, NE-BC. “From her experience in designing and opening of a freestanding emergency department, as well as urgent care and trauma centers to her commitment to quality and process improvements – she is a highly skilled leader. Barb spent much of her career within Cleveland Clinic health system and we are delighted to welcome her back.”

A tenured career of nursing excellence

Morgan has a long history of successfully developing new nursing programs, roles, and teams in an effort to provide enhanced, comprehensive patient care. She helped to design and place the case manager role in the ED setting and developed an adult SANE (sexual assault nurse examiner) program.

During her prior decade with Cleveland Clinic, Morgan was a key member of the leadership team responsible for developing the adult critical care transport program, in which she conceptualized the care model utilizing acute care nurse practitioners. She also developed a rapid response team model known as AMET (Adult Emergency Response Team). The team’s primary goal was to respond within 10 minutes to adult medical-surgical inpatient units, intervening and supporting care for decompensating patients.

Among other notable successes, Morgan contributed to the development and implementation of the Cleveland Clinic main campus emergency department’s low acuity clinic, which was designed to positively influence patient flow. And she led several emergency and intensive care nursing teams through Joint Commission and CMS surveys, effectively maintaining regulatory compliance and survey readiness.

Organized, motivated, goal-oriented leader

“I’ve always considered myself a proactive and results-oriented nurse executive. My leadership style is driven by my commitment to deliver compassionate, high-quality patient care,” Morgan says. “As the emergency nursing environment continues to evolve with new challenges and variables, I believe transparency, communication and staff coaching are imperative to successful emergency services nursing.”

Morgan believes in implementing both short-term and long-term goal-oriented strategies. She excels at maintaining effective nursing operations in the midst of organizational change and has the ability to lead complex projects from concept to implementation. She is also a strong advocate for positive cultural change.

Morgan is a board certified nurse executive (NE-BC) by the American Nurses Credentialing Center. She is a member of the national Emergency Nurses Association, Sigma Theta Tau International Society of Nursing, and several Cleveland Clinic steering committees, councils and process improvement initiatives.

Morgan holds a Master’s degree in Nursing from Ursuline College (case management program) and a Bachelor’s degree in Nursing from The Ohio State University. She accepted her new role in February.