Cassandra (Sandy) Garcia, RN, BSN, MBA
CSR Consultant, Joint Commission Resources
Ms. Garcia has over 21 years experience in the health care field. Her career has largely been in the arena of executive nursing leadership and surgical services in non-profit and for-profit organizations. Ms. Garcia is also a licensed long term care administrator. Her most recent position prior to joining Joint Commission Resources was as Chief Nursing Officer in a acute care hospital and a long term care facility. She had accountability for all nursing areas along with Rehab Services, Respiratory Services, and Pharmacy Services. In this position she lowered turnover in her departments to less than 4% and eliminated all agency utilization for over 7 years thus enhancing quality of care and reducing salary expense significantly. Ms. Garcia has successfully developed new clinical programs resulting in multi-million dollar bottom line improvements. She has had extensive training in hard-wiring excellence and LEAN management.
During her career Ms. Garcia has been accountable for overseeing regulatory and accreditation services in both acute and long term care facilities. Her experiences range from large tertiary care facilities to small rural hospitals, which brings a varied view on successful strategies to exceed accreditation and regulatory requirements. She has led numerous successful surveys during her career and has been involved with surveys in hospitals and long term care facilities. Her strong clinical background and her administrative accountability for the majority of departments in the hospital and long term care facilities and her graduate work in business administration brings strength to her role for Joint Commission Resources.
Recently, Ms. Garcia has served on two advisory boards for nursing programs at local technical colleges. She most recently was the keynote speaker at their pinning ceremony. Ms. Garcia is currently the Chairman of Low Country Area Health Education Center serving 12 southeastern counties in South Carolina.
Ms. Garcia received a diploma in Nursing from St. Mary's School of Nursing in Huntington West Virginia, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Elmhurst College in Elmhurst, Illinois and a Masters of Business Administration from North Park College in Chicago, Illinois. She is a licensed Long Term Care Administrator in South Carolina.
Ms. Garcia resides with her family in Bamberg, South Carolina.