Forty years of service deserves a celebration! Hats off to you, Stephanie Degruyter, Clinical Improvement Coordinator at Memorial. She is and has been a loyal supporter of MMC and no matter what her job title has been, the patients who entrust their care to us are her primary focus.

Stephanie started here in 1981 as a Nursing Assistant on the Surgical Unit. She started nursing school shortly after that and began working as an LPN in 1982 and an RN in 1983, again on the Surgical Unit. She worked there until 1991 when she moved to the ICU for a seven-year stint. She then moved to UM/PI in 1998. She has worked in a variety of roles in Performance Improvement – starting with utilization management, moving to Medical Staff and Quality. She remains in Quality now, although the job description has changed over the years. Along the way she obtained her CPHQ – Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality certification – which she maintains.  

She was a conscientious bedside nurse who advocated for patients and families. In the ICU she was a great team member and always went above and beyond not only for her patients, but to help others as well.

In her current position, she reviews medical records to identify patients who have developed HACs – hospital acquire conditions. She works with coding, physicians and staff to identify and remediate these and to identify process changes that will prevent them in the future. She is detail-oriented and meticulous in her reviews.