Fox Chase Cancer Center is pleased to announce the recruitment of Anna Liza Rodriguez, MSN, MHA, RN, OCN®, NEA-BC, as chief nursing officer (CNO) and vice president of nursing and patient services. Rodriguez’s start date is February 1, 2021.
Rodriguez’s role will include providing leadership and administrative oversight for all nursing practice at Fox Chase. “She will be responsible for fostering the magnet culture, ensuring that the delivery of patient care is evidence based and innovative, with attention to the individual needs of every patient, supporting our nursing professionals and leaders, and further advancing the quality of care both at Fox Chase and throughout Temple University Health System,” said Richard I. Fisher, MD, president and CEO of Fox Chase.
Before coming to Fox Chase, Rodriguez served for nearly five years as associate nursing officer at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, Tenn. Vanderbilt is a top National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center.
“We are pleased that Anna will be joining the Temple University Health System family. Her years of experience, history of compassion and strong attention to detail will help take the Fox Chase nursing department to the next level,” said Angelo Venditti, DNP, senior vice president & chief nurse executive for the Temple University Health System.
She led Vanderbilt’s oncology enterprise in collaboration with other senior leaders providing administrative oversight and leadership and assumed expanded cancer enterprise operations responsibilities during key leadership transitions. She managed a $145 million budget, and a staff of 350+ to provide high-quality cancer care, overseeing 215,000 yearly clinic and infusion visits.
Her accomplishments there include leading operational planning and change management for several concurrent cancer ambulatory sites new construction and expansion projects, electronic health record and other technology implementations, the redesign of new patient access and cancer navigation processes, workflow and throughput infusion center and clinic process improvement, and interdepartmental collaboration to establish outpatient CAR-T and Lutathera® programs among others.
Prior to Vanderbilt, Rodriguez spent four years at Presence Resurrection Medical Center in Chicago, where she held various roles, including director of clinical operations; director of oncology, women’s and children’s programs; and director of the oncology program.
She also served for four years at Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago, where she was unit director for oncology, and for eight years at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. She began there as a staff nurse in the Stem Cell Transplant/Hematology Unit and advanced to the roles of clinical coordinator and then patient care manager in the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit.
Earlier in her career, Rodriguez served at Schwab Rehabilitation Hospital and Fairmont Care Center, both in Chicago, focusing on quality improvement and medical staff credentialing.
Rodriguez received her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Saint Louis University in the Philippines and master’s degrees in both nursing and healthcare administration from the University of Phoenix. She holds specialty certifications as a Nurse Executive Advanced-Board Certified (NEA-BC) and Oncology Certified Nurse (OCN), and has Six Sigma Green Belt training.