Spernal Recognized for Her Leadership, Influence, and Contributions to Reducing the Maternal Mortality Rate in New Jersey
West Orange, NJ, August 24, 2020 – Suzanne Spernal, DNP, APN-BC, RNC-OB, Vice President of Women’s Services, RWJBarnabas Health, was named one of the 2020 Modern HealthcareTop 25 Innovators. This nationwide recognition honors leaders across the country who are instituting innovation and leading transformative programs that improve care.
Spernal is responsible for the leadership, strategy and management of the RWJBarnabas Health Women’s Service line. This network encompasses eight maternity programs supporting approximately 24,000 births every year in New Jersey. Her tasks and responsibilities include assessing key issues and building support for policy agenda related to women’s and family issues, executing solutions and strategies, developing and maintaining partnerships with community-based organizations, creating educational programs as well as mentoring women’s services nursing leaders.
Spernal leads the RWJBarnabas Health OB Collaborative, bringing together the top minds in obstetrics across the system’s eight birthing hospitals to advocate for women’s health, wellness, and safety. This multi-disciplinary leadership team is committed to ending preventable morbidity, mortality, and racial disparities in maternity care. The OB collaborative team has developed and implemented many innovative programs including an alert system in the emergency department to better recognize and treat fourth trimester complications. Additionally, under Spernal’s leadership there has been a system wide reduction of cesarean section, episiotomy, and early elective delivery rates.
“Modern Healthcare’s recognition of Suzanne as one of the Top 25 Innovators is a well-deserved testament to her passion and dedication toward reducing maternal morbidity and mortality within RWJBarnabas Health as well as the greater New Jersey community,” said Barry H. Ostrowsky, President and Chief Executive Officer of RWJBarnabas Health. “Suzanne’s focus on a woman’s total health, not simply maternity services, has made way for a new frontier in women’s services. She will continue to impact countless lives through her work.”
Dr. Spernal earned a Master of Science in Nursing from Rutgers University and a Doctorate of Nursing Practice from Monmouth University.
ABOUT RWJBARNABAS HEALTH
RWJBarnabas Health is the largest, most comprehensive academic health care system in New Jersey, with a service area covering nine counties with five million people. The system includes eleven acute care hospitals; three acute care children’s hospitals and a leading pediatric rehabilitation hospital with a network of outpatient centers, a freestanding 100-bed behavioral health center, two trauma centers, a satellite emergency department, ambulatory care centers, geriatric centers, the state’s largest behavioral health network, comprehensive home care and hospice programs, fitness and wellness centers, retail pharmacy services, a medical group, multi-site imaging centers and two accountable care organizations.
RWJBarnabas Health is New Jersey’s largest private employer – with more than 33,000 employees, 9,000 physicians and 1,000 residents and interns – and routinely captures national awards for outstanding quality and safety. RWJBarnabas Health recently announced a partnership with Rutgers University to create New Jersey’s largest academic health care system. This collaboration will align RWJBarnabas
Health with Rutgers’ education, research and clinical activities, including those at the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey - the state's only NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center.