Deborah A. Proctor has served as president and CEO of Orange, Calif.-based St. Joseph Health since December 2004. 
Ms. Proctor has a considerable amount of experience on both the provider and administrative sides of healthcare. She holds a bachelor's and master's degree in nursing and served as a critical care nurse and an associate professor. Administratively, Ms. Proctor has held various leadership positions at St. Joseph Health, Voluntary Hospitals of America in Dallas and Ascension Health in St. Louis. She also was a consultant before retuning to St. Joseph Health in 2004.
Currently, Ms. Proctor is helping St. Joseph Health transform to succeed in the new healthcare landscape. According to Ms. Proctor, one key to future success is not trying to go it alone. "Our strategy calls us to recognize that we should not face our future alone," she told Becker's Hospital Review last year. "We must build new partnerships and seek like-minded partners that help us provide a continuum of care for our communities." She is pursuing clinical integration with physicians and striving to develop a network that includes acute-care hospitals, physicians, home health and skilled nursing providers.
Ms. Proctor is involved in healthcare beyond her responsibilities at St. Joseph Health. She has authored several articles and one video on healthcare topics and was part of a team of authors collaborating on a Manual for Hospital Ethics Committees, published by the American Hospital Association. Additionally, she is a current member of the American College of Healthcare Executives. In the past, she has been a member of the American Nurses Association, the American Association of Critical Care Nurses and the American Management Association.
In recognition of her years of exemplary healthcare leadership, Becker's Hospital Review named Ms. Proctor to its 2012 list of 120 Women Hospital and Health System Leaders to Know.
If you have additional information or updates for this profile, or would like to recommend a leader to be profiled in the future, please contact Lindsey Dunn, editor in chief, Becker's Hospital Review at ldunn@beckershealthcare.com.
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