Maria Hale is the Associate Executive Director of Northern Westchester Hospital, a 245 bed community hospital in Mount Kisco, New York. With more than 20 years of healthcare experience in both an academic medical center and a community hospital setting, Hale has a variety of experience in healthcare administration, training and development, information technology and project and process management.
Hale’s current areas of focus include patient advocacy, patient engagement and wellness, integrative medicine, medical ethics consultation, chaplaincy, family caregiver support and creating and fostering a culture of patient and family centered care throughout the hospital. Operational areas include leadership of environmental services, food and nutritional services, patient transportation and administrative functions supporting patient care units. Under Hale’s leadership NWH was awarded the prestigious recognition of Gold Certification with Distinction as a Planetree Patient-Centered Hospital, and the first hospital in the tri-state area to receive a 5-Star rating from the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid.
The Picker Institute funded and appointed Hale as one of three national fellows in patient-centered care. Hale is an author and lecturer on sustaining patient-centered care in acute care settings. Dedicated to the education of patients and families, Hale spearheaded the design and implementation of a unique bedside tablet providing patients with direct, real-time, patient-friendly access to their medical record. Hale also created the first caregiver center in the nation dedicated to supporting the needs of family caregivers, a program that has been replicated by 19 other institutions. Hale is also an expert in patient-centered process and facility design with successful redesigns in the Emergency Department, Food Services, Inpatient Care and Mother-Baby & Ambulatory Surgery.
Additionally, Hale has more than 10 years of Human Resources and Training Development experience as Director of Human Resources for two of the world’s premier hotel companies, The Four Seasons and Ritz Carlton Hotel.
Hale is a graduate of Boston College, earned a Master’s in Business Administration from Iona College and a Doctor of Psychology in Human and Organizational Psychology from Touro University.
