Service-Oriented Leader Named CNO at Cleveland Clinic Union Hospital

Dana Kocsis, MSN, RN, was appointed Chief Nursing Officer of Cleveland Clinic Union Hospital, an award-winning community hospital serving Tuscarawas, Carroll and surrounding counties in eastern Ohio. She replaces Diana Boyd, MBA, BSN, RN, who retired in July.

As CNO of Union Hospital, Kocsis will lead nursing caregivers, focusing on continuing to improve quality and safety, patient experience, caregiver engagement, regulatory compliance and nursing excellence. She will also help further integrate Union Hospital into the Cleveland Clinic health system, which it joined in April 2018.

“Dana is a strategic leader and a collaborative partner in directing diverse, high-performing, engaged teams to provide exceptional patient care and operational outcomes,” says Cleveland Clinic Executive Chief Nursing Officer K. Kelly Hancock, DNP, RN, NE-BC.

Driving teams to achieve excellence

A nursing veteran for more than three decades, Kocsis has clinical experience on a variety of nursing units, including medical/surgical, critical care and psychiatry. Before joining Union Hospital, she served as vice president of nursing and operations at Cleveland Clinic Akron General Lodi Hospital for seven years. Under her guidance, the community hospital earned the “Best Practice in Quality Award” from the National Rural Health Association. In addition, its inpatient, outpatient and emergency department all achieved patient satisfaction scores greater than the 90th percentile.

Kocsis was director of nursing and operations at Akron General Lodi Hospital from 2007 to 2012. Prior to that, she held several managerial positions at Akron General. She is recognized for her ability to devise strategies that appeal to people with diverse and competing interests to facilitate change and improvement. Kocsis excels at employee engagement, contract negotiations and capital and operating budget preparations.

Honing leadership skills through continual learning

Kocsis doesn’t back down from the opportunity to “learn by doing.” During her tenure as vice president of nursing and operations at Cleveland Clinic’s Akron General Lodi Hospital, she assumed additional responsibilities as interim vice president of operations at Akron General’s Edwin Shaw Rehabilitation Institute for more than a year. While there, she oversaw all operations for the 35-bed acute rehabilitation inpatient unit, five outpatient rehabilitation sites and outpatient chemical dependency services.

Kocsis holds a nursing diploma from the Akron City Hospital School of Nursing and an MSN in Nursing Administration from the University of Akron. She continues to hone her leadership skills, having participated in the Cleveland Clinic Serving Leadership Cohort Training (2017), the Medina County Leadership Program (2015), the Tony Gorant Leadership Institute (2012) and the Healthcare Advisory Board Leadership Academy (2007).