LEBANON — Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health has picked its top nursing executive to run Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center on a daily basis, giving D-H CEO Joanne Conroy more time to oversee the broader Lebanon-based health care system.
Susan A. Reeves, who has been serving as chief nursing executive and executive vice president for research and education at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health, was named executive vice president of DHMC, D-H said in a news release Thursday.
“Most of our D-HH members have in place a senior, local leader at their helm, with a concentrated focus on operations for each member organization,” Conroy said in the release. “It is appropriate that we have a similar leadership structure for DHMC, the academic organization within our academic health system, clarifying the role of DHMC as a distinct member of the D-HH system.”
DHMC, with 396 beds and a new patient tower soon to be constructed, is the flagship hospital within the Dartmouth-Hitchcock system, which also includes major clinics through much of New Hampshire as well as New London Hospital, Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital, Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center, and Visiting Nurse and Hospice for Vermont and New Hampshire.
The move will also enable Conroy to devote more attention to Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s planned “combination” with Manchester-based GraniteOne Health as the “the level of complexity” in operations of the system increases, the release noted.
The release said Reeves “will be responsible for establishing and executing DHMC’s short- and long-range objectives.”
“I’ve spent most of my professional career in the Dartmouth-Hitchcock system, and I’m honored and humbled to take on this role,” Reeves said. “DHMC is a vibrant center for high-quality health care, health professions education and discovery. I look forward to our continued growth so that we may keep our promise to improve the health of our region.”
Reeves has worked in the Dartmouth-Hitchcock system for more than 40 years. Her early-career specialty was oncology, with a sub-specialty in radiation oncology nursing. As part of the senior leadership team, she later helped to oversee the inpatient hospital, D-H’s Norris Cotton Cancer and the D-H Emergency Services programs.
Through a contractual arrangement with D-H, Reeves led the nursing program for Colby-Sawyer College — where she was a 1988 alumna — as dean and professor in the School of Nursing and Health Professions from 2007 to 2017, when she became D-HH chief nursing executive. She recently led efforts to expand the partnership between D-HH and Colby-Sawyer to train and recruit health care professionals by instituting new degree programs.
Reeves’ advanced degrees include a master’s in nursing administration from the University of New Hampshire in 1991 and a doctorate in educational leadership and policy studies from the University of Vermont in 2010.
She is a trustee and vice-chair of the board of New London Hospital. She lives with her husband in New London.