By Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council

(West Islip, NY) Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center’s Karen Lange, RN, MS, NE-BC, was recently honored by the Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council (NSHC) at the Woodbury Country Club as a nominee for the 2012 Nurse of Excellence Award. Nomination for this award is based on several criteria, including significant achievement within a specific area of nursing and the demonstration of leadership and quality performance. Ms. Lange was honored from a field of more than 500 nurses at hospitals from across Long Island.

Ms. Lange started at Good Samaritan in 1974 as a licensed practical nurse on a medical unit.  Her involvement in improving medical-surgical services has evolved as she has advanced to director of two medical-surgical telemetry units with responsibility for approximately 100 staff members, as well as maintaining compliance with standards of nursing in accordance with the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Magnet® requirements.

As director, she provides leadership to the medical-surgical units, overseeing the delivery of care in a professional practice environment where innovation, education and collaboration combine to transform patient care. Ms. Lange holds a bachelor’s degree of science in nursing from Molloy College and a master’s in nursing administration from Adelphi University, is president of Long Island Chapter 112 of the American Academy of Medical Surgical Nurses (AMSN) and serves on the AMSN task force for recertification review.

NSHC began in 1955 as an advocacy organization empowered to safeguard the interests of its member hospitals and to better plan, coordinate and finance health care services on Long Island for the residents of the region.

Pictured (L-R): Patricia Darcy, MS, RN-BC-NE, Chief Nursing Officer and Vice President of Patient Care Services at Southampton Hospital and Chair of the Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council Nurse Executives Committee, Good Samaritan Hospital Senior Vice President of Nursing and Chief Nursing Officer Pat Hogan, RN, Good Samaritan Hospital Director of Medical-Surgical Nursing Karen Lange, RN and Gara Edelstein, MSN, RN, Chair of NSHC Nurse of Excellence Sub-committee and Vice President of Administration and Chief Nursing Officer at St. Catherine of Siena Medical Center.

Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center is a 537-bed (including 100 nursing home beds), voluntary, not-for-profit hospital located in West Islip.  The medical center, which has more than 4,500 employees and almost 900 physicians on staff, had nearly 30,000 patient admissions and more than 95,000 emergency department visits in 2011.  Good Samaritan is a member of Catholic Health Services of Long Island. Visit the website at www.good-samaritan-hospital.org.

Good Samaritan provided more than $43 million in community service and charity care in 2011.  The medical center supplies residents with the tools necessary to maintain good health.  This includes community lectures, screenings, health fairs and other community programs and services.