Inside Duke Medicine
DRH names new chief nursing officer
posted September 18th, 2009Victoria K. Orto, MS, RN, NEA-BC, has been named chief nursing officer at Durham Regional Hospital, effective Sept. 28.
Orto most recently served as senior director of medical/surgical nursing for Rochester General Health System in Rochester, N.Y., where she was responsible for a division that consisted of 15 units, 300 beds and 530 budgeted full-time employees. She previously was director of medical nursing for Rochester General Hospital and Newark Wayne Hospital (formerly Genessee Hospital), and served as interim chief nursing officer for Newark Wayne Hospital, all part of Rochester General Health System.
Among many accomplishments, Orto was recently a member of the system’s Magnet Executive Team, which submitted a Magnet re-designation application, and was the director in charge of the skin care initiative, the Nurses Improving Care for Healthsystem Elders (NICHE) initiative and the JCAHO certified stroke program. Her nursing experience includes medicine, surgical intensive care unit, inpatient psychiatry and women’s services. At the beginning of her career, she was a licensed practical nurse in the U.S. Army, stationed at the 28th Combat Support Hospital in Fort Bragg, N.C.
Orto is certified as a Nursing Executive Advanced through the American Nursing Credentialing Center, and a member of Sigma Theta Tau International honor society for nursing, American Organization of Nurse Executives, American Association of Healthcare Executives and New York Association of Healthcare Executives. She holds a diploma in nursing from Albany Medical Center School of Nursing in Albany, N.Y.; a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Nazareth College of Rochester in Rochester, N.Y.; and a master’s of science degree in nursing administration from St. John Fisher College in Rochester, N.Y.