Rhonda Hawthorne
Scottsdale
Summary
Dynamic nursing professional with extensive experience at Arizona Home Health, excelling in IV therapy and clinical assessment. Proven track record in care management, achieving a 60% reduction in patient transfers. Strong team collaboration skills enhance patient safety and operational efficiency, driving quality outcomes in diverse healthcare settings.
Overview
13
13
years of professional experience
Work History
SWAT Nurse, Home Infusion
Arizona Home Health
08.2024 - Current
- Rhonda provides keen clinical assessment, admission, and infusion setup for adult patients requiring various intravenous infusions for nutritional support, infection control, and immunoglobulin therapy, including Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN), antibiotics, and IVIg.
- She functions as an autonomous remote nurse, remaining on call and adapting rapidly to meet both patient and company needs to ensure the delivery of quality care and exceed organizational metric requirements.
- Rhonda is responsible for the timely submission of OASIS charting for coder diagnosis capture and billing, as well as reviewing ICD-10 codes to determine the clinical severity of each patient prior to billing submission.
Nurse Traveler
AB Staffing (FEMA)
Idaho, New Mexico
01.2021 - 07.2024
- Rhonda has served as a clinical staff team member in both Medical ICU and Medical/Surgical units, consistently delivering impressive patient care and contributing to the achievement of unit goals that support organizational success and leadership.
- She is proficient with multiple EMR systems, including Athens, MediTech, Cerner, Capella, and EPIC.
- Rhonda demonstrates excellent critical thinking in managing intravenous drips (inotropic) and mechanical ventilation.
- She is known as a fun team member with a strong focus on infection prevention and patient safety and has extensive experience in critical care management for COVID, stroke, orthopedic issues, trauma, brain injury, and spine injury.
Home Health and COVID Testing Nurse
ModMD Health Services
01.2021 - 06.2023
- As a professional home travel nurse, Rhonda delivered care and COVID testing services to elite clients.
- She performed rapid PCR COVID testing for clients on local filming sites in Scottsdale and Phoenix, maintained accurate records for mileage and budget in accordance with company policies and guidelines, and successfully managed a caseload of 15–20 clients, remaining available for on-call visits.
- Rhonda was consistently punctual for patient visits, receiving frequent positive feedback from clients.
Regional Operations Manager
Davita Kidney Care-ESCO (Medicare ACO)
01.2017 - 03.2021
- Rhonda served as the results-driven Regional Manager for the Phoenix-Tucson ESCO/Medicare Care Management Team.
- She developed and implemented strategies focused on growth and operational problem-solving, building cross-team partnerships and effectively mobilizing resources to improve team performance, financial outcomes, quality metrics, operational needs, clinical critical thinking, and patient outcomes for Medicare beneficiaries.
- Rhonda utilized root-cause analysis to track clinical trends and team success, coached both formal and informal leaders to become stronger and more agile clinicians and team members, and collaborated with analysts to develop tools for workflow and clinical management improvement.
- She created educational tools for patient-facing conversations and interventions, redesigned training and hiring strategies for nurses and care coordinators, developed policies for chronic disease management standards of care, and continuously monitored CMS metrics driving operational and clinical goals that directly affected profit and loss, achieving a 2.5M ROI.
- Rhonda implemented and managed operational pilots for Telehealth, Banner Palliative Care, Hospice of the Valley, and Northwest Valley Connect, reducing hospital admissions and missed dialysis treatments while improving collaboration in patient care.
- She developed a clinical focus plan and process to proactively achieve a CMS admit rate of 1.30 and strengthened relationships with network specialists, hospitals, hospital programs, and community providers.
Nurse Manager of Medical Post-Surgical Services and ICU
OASIS Hospital
01.2014 - 01.2016
- Rhonda led a team of 90 clinical staff members in a surgical orthopedic facility specializing in total joints and spines.
- With a comprehensive understanding of state and Joint Commission regulatory guidelines, she successfully reopened the Post-Surgical ICU after an immediate jeopardy citation.
- Rhonda skillfully implemented senior leadership goals and budgets to enhance processes, productivity, healthcare informatics, patient safety, outcomes, and fiscal stewardship.
- She achieved a reduction in falls rate to less than 1% within a year, consistently maintained HCAHPS scores at or above the 85th percentile, and eliminated the use of agency staff within a year, resulting in $30,000 in savings.
- Rhonda worked with the Quality Director to improve data collection and decrease patient transfers to tertiary facilities by 60%.
- She formulated and updated over 40 policies for post-surgical and intensive care units, developed a SWOT analysis for interdepartmental patient throughput processes, and significantly improved nurse and C.N.A retention rates through effective leadership and team-building strategies.
Intensive Care Registered Nurse / Nurse Supervisor
Kindred Phoenix Hospital
Phoenix
01.2014 - 12.2014
- As Nurse Supervisor, Rhonda ensured the reliability and consistency of nursing care for critically ill patients.
- She managed titration of cardiac intravenous drips to maintain adequate cardiac output and rhythms, communicated effectively with the nursing team and physicians to determine the root cause of abnormal patient data values, and documented patient data, interventions, and outcomes each shift for accurate records.
Chief Nursing Officer — Consultant
Adamsville Florence Medical Center
01.2013 - 12.2014
- In her role as consultant, Rhonda prepared a rural acute hospital (23 licensed beds, 21 staffed beds) for Department of Health and Human Services survey and licensure.
- She generated policies and procedures to ensure state compliance and safe clinical practices, managed lean departmental budgets for staff recruitment and supply/equipment procurement, and negotiated vendor contracts for EHR billing and documentation interfaces.
- Rhonda formulated audit tools and reports for quality measure capture and infection control, recommended strategies and key performance indicators for sustainable quality patient care, cultivated relationships with physicians and vendors, provided guidance and leadership for staff recruitment and compliance, and used historic data for benchmarking, performance improvement, and anticipating data trends.
Education
Master of Business Administration - Business Administration
University of Phoenix
Mesa, AZ10.2010
Associate of Applied Science Degree - Nursing, RN
Mesa Community College
Mesa, AZ12.2005
Bachelor of Science Degree - Therapeutic Recreation
Indiana University
Bloomington, IN12.2002
Skills
- IV therapy
- Care management
- Clinical assessment
- Electronic health records
- Patient safety
- Team collaboration
Personal Information
Title: RN, MBA
Timeline
SWAT Nurse, Home Infusion
Arizona Home Health
08.2024 - Current
Nurse Traveler
AB Staffing (FEMA)
01.2021 - 07.2024
Home Health and COVID Testing Nurse
ModMD Health Services
01.2021 - 06.2023
Regional Operations Manager
Davita Kidney Care-ESCO (Medicare ACO)
01.2017 - 03.2021
Nurse Manager of Medical Post-Surgical Services and ICU
OASIS Hospital
01.2014 - 01.2016
Intensive Care Registered Nurse / Nurse Supervisor
Kindred Phoenix Hospital
01.2014 - 12.2014
Chief Nursing Officer — Consultant
Adamsville Florence Medical Center
01.2013 - 12.2014
Master of Business Administration - Business Administration
University of Phoenix
Associate of Applied Science Degree - Nursing, RN
Mesa Community College
Bachelor of Science Degree - Therapeutic Recreation
Indiana University