MIDDLEBURY — Porter Medical Center President Lynn Boggs has announced the appointment of Karen Beinhaur, MSN/Ed. RN, CEN, as Porter’s new interim vice president for patient care services and chief nursing officer, replacing Charleen Ryan who resigned from this position.
Beinhaur has most recently served as Porter Hospital’s clinical director of patient care, and will be working closely with Chief Medical Officer Dr. Carrie Wulfman and the entire clinical staff of Porter to ensure the highest level of patient care quality, safety and satisfaction.
Boggs shared the news of this appointment with the entire Porter community on March 14 and indicated her confidence in Beinhaur to fill this role on an interim basis. “Prior to making this announcement, we spoke with the physician leaders for the medical staff last week to share this news and ask for feedback on this very important role,” she said. “The first step for Dr. Carrie Wulfman and me was to consult with the physician heads of hospital departments to discuss our interim plan to fill this critically important role. After having these conversations, we were pleased to announce that Karen Beinhaur would be appointed to this position on an interim basis,” she said.
Beinhaur has been a nurse for 20 years and came to Porter from her previous role as clinical director of emergency services and urgent care at St. Joseph Hospital in Nashua, N.H., a 208-bed magnet hospital. She was born in Burlington and grew up in Vergennes. In addition to her emergency services experience, she has worked in medical/surgical, home health and physician practice settings and previously worked at a critical access hospital in New Hampshire. Beinhaur began her healthcare career as an LNA at Helen Porter Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center while she was in nursing school in the early 1990s.
“We have vitally important work to organize, including an evaluation of the main floor/SCU integration project and a close review of staffing in all areas but most immediately on main floor and in surgical services,” said Wulfman. “I believe that Karen will be a strong interim leader and she and I look forward to working together with Porter’s caring and dedicated staff.”