Colleen Desai Joins Holyoke Medical Center as Chief Nursing Officer

HOLYOKE — Spiros Hatiras, President and CEO of Holyoke Medical Center and Valley Health Systems, announced the appointment of Colleen Desai as chief Nursing officer (CNO) at Holyoke Medical Center.

“Colleen has a diverse background in nursing leadership, accompanied by 13 years of serving in the Army National Guard,” Hatiras said. “Her knowledge and commitment to quality and excellence will allow Colleen to continue to develop the culture and standard of care we are committed to providing patients.”

Most recently, Desai served as system-wide director of Emergency & Critical Care Services, Respiratory, Neurodiagnostics at Heywood Healthcare with hospitals in Gardner and Athol. There, she helped initiate direct bedding in the Emergency Department, which overhauled the emergency admitting process and was presented as a best practice in ‘door to bed’ admission times at the National Emergency Nurses Assoc. Conference in 2016. Desai was also instrumental in implementing and directing a CHART Grant Program with a behavioral-health focus, decreasing high-utilizer recidivism by more than 10{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5}. This experience will be especially useful within Holyoke Medical Center’s new Emergency Department, which was partially funded through the CHART Grant Program.

Desai’s prior experience included managerial positions at Connecticut Children’’ Medical Center, St. Francis Hospital & Medical Center, Yale-New Haven Hospital, and the Hospital of Central Connecticut. She received her bachelor’s degree in Nursing from Western Connecticut State University, then went on to complete a master’s degree in nursing, followed by her MBA, from the University of Hartford.

“I am excited to join the leadership team at Holyoke Medical Center and to have the opportunity to assist in fulfilling the vision of the organization to be ‘the best place for care and the best place to work,’” said Desai. “With the Nursing division accounting for nearly half of the employees within the hospital, continuing to grow and focus on meeting the needs of our patients and workforce is my top priority.”