Brooks named vice president of Health System Operation Command Centers – Patient Logistics

Heather Brooks has been appointed to the position of vice president of the Health System Operation Command Centers – Patient Logistics. This newly created role is responsible for the health system transfer center and patient flow platform under the Penn State Health Clinical Platforms Network, which analyzes clinical data to improve patient care.

While continuing her leadership role in the patient logistics department at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Brooks will work on aligning best practices and processes across the health system, including interfacility patient transfers, patient load balancing, patient placement and capacity management. She will also focus on gains in economies of scale, consistencies in consumer experiences, and support system growth through the management of external patient referral patterns to the health system’s acute care facilities.

This new position will support Penn State Health’s move from growth to optimization and integration by bringing consistency and efficiency to patient care logistics and patient load balancing. That will lift some of the burden of complex decision-making regarding logistics from our clinical staff, allowing them to focus on delivering excellent care.

Brooks completed her Master of Business Administration in health care management from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2021. She holds a Bachelor of Science in nursing from Rush University and a Bachelor of Science in microbiology from Loyola University Chicago. She is a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives.

After accepting a position in the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center’s Medical Intermediate Care Unit in 2009, Brooks progressed to a perioperative nurse leader and manager of patient logistics, advancing to director of patient logistics in January 2021. In addition, she was an asset to the hospital’s Incident Command Centers during the 2021 COVID surges, delivering critical situational awareness on capacity, volumes and bed needs. Brooks’ breadth of knowledge includes in-depth understanding of the registration system, call center operations of the switchboard and contact center, excellence in caller experience and process optimization of operational call centers.

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