Nursing Institute Names Associate Chief Nursing Officer of Care Management and Ambulatory Services

A veteran nurse with more than 25 years of progressive leadership experience, Kristine Weiss Adams, MSN, CNP, has been named Cleveland Clinic’s Associate Chief Nursing Officer (ACNO) of Care Management and Ambulatory Services.

Adams will lead and coordinate system-wide nursing practice within all ambulatory and home care areas for Cleveland Clinic’s Stanley Shalom Zielony Institute for Nursing Excellence. This includes directing ambulatory care, care management, care coordination, population health management, and post-acute nursing practice according to quality, safety, regulatory compliance and operational activities. She will also collaborate with executive leadership in the development and implementation of strategic operations.

A certified advanced practice nurse, Adams will continue to serve as senior director of Cleveland Clinic’s Chronic Disease Clinics, which are nurse-practitioner run community clinics that aim to reduce hospitalizations and patient readmissions. She will also continue her practice in the Cleveland Clinic Hillcrest Hospital Clinic and her work as an advocate for helping patients quit smoking through the clinics’ smoking cessation programs.

“On behalf of the Cleveland Clinic Zielony Nursing Institute, we look forward to continuing to see Kristine’s extensive leadership experience and ambulatory nursing expertise in action as she steps into her new role,” says K. Kelly Hancock, DNP, RN, NE-BC, Executive Chief Nursing Officer, Cleveland Clinic. “Her ability to successfully manage people and services is exceptional. Without doubt, she will be a tremendous asset in the management of our ambulatory care services and home care network, and she is a welcomed addition to our executive nursing leadership team.”

A 25-year award-winning nursing veteran

Known as a trusted, driven leader, Adams has spent the better part of her nearly three decades in nursing in management and leadership positions. She has experience in a variety of patient care settings, including the free clinic setting, which Adams says, “has given me a thoughtful perspective on the way in which care is and should be provided to the most vulnerable patient populations.” She continues to serve in a clinic in Teotepeque, El Salvador, where she sees patients for a variety of primary care and women’s health issues.

Additionally, her accolades and accomplishments are many. As a clinical manager for advanced practice nurses (APNs) and physician assistants (PAs) at Cleveland Clinic Fairview Hospital, Adams was instrumental in restructuring preadmission testing to utilize APNs and PAs at their highest level of licensure. As a nursing research and quality specialist, also at Fairview, she not only helped lead the hospital to its first American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) Magnet® designation in 2008, but also its redesignation in 2013.

Adams was also among the first providers at Cleveland Clinic to see patients in HealthSpot stations, a telemedicine format, and she was responsible for bringing the Express Care® Online telemedicine platform to Cleveland Clinic’s Taussig Cancer Institute.

Throughout her career, Adams has served on several steering committees and councils in areas such as nursing quality, legislation and policy, research, shared governance and engagement. She was a 2013 recipient of the Greater Cleveland Nurse’s Association Faces of Care Award, and the 2007 recipient of Cleveland Clinic’s Louise McNamara Award for Excellence in Leadership and Clinical Nursing.

Experienced for today and tomorrow

Adams is passionate about the advancement of nursing practice and the future of the nursing profession.

She is an avid researcher, currently working with a physician team and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to develop a new device to help manage emergency epistaxis in anticoagulated patients. And she is a former clinical faculty member for the nursing school at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, where she provided instruction for students in the university’s nurse practitioner program.

Adams is a certified adult nurse practitioner (CNP) and a member of several regional and national nursing organizations, including the Care Management Society of America, the Ohio Association of Advanced Practice Nurses and the American Association of Advanced Practice Nurses.

She holds a Master of Science in Nursing from Kent State University and a bachelor’s degree in Nursing from The Ohio State University.