Laura Magstadt to leave Asante for new role

Laura Magstadt, who has served as vice president of Nursing for ATRMC since 2016, will leave Asante at the end of the month and head to Utah, where she will serve as a chief nursing officer within the Mountain Star Health system.

Robert White and Stacey Snyder will service as interim Nursing leaders until a replacement is found, hospital CEO Win Howard said in an announcement on Thursday.

Magstadt has played a key role in many of Asante’s clinical initiatives, including championing the Hill-Rom nurse call system, replacing aging cardiac monitors, implementing Zebra mobile communications, promoting a patient education system and adopting inpatient telepsychiatry to boost access to behavioral health care.

She has also helped lead employee-focused improvements, including the Workplace Violence Prevention Program. She serves on the Wellness Program steering committee and the Executive Compliance committee.

“During her tenure at Asante, Laura provided around-the-clock support to staff, leadership and physicians, which led to record-breaking nurse engagement scores from 2018 to 2020,” Howard said.

Magstadt led ATRMC to the American Nurses Credentialing Center Pathway to Excellence designation in 2019, including developing a new shared governance model. She also helped bring a trauma-informed care model to ATRMC and presented the teams’ work at the 2020 American Organization for Nursing Leaders Annual Conference.

At the height of the COVID-19 delta surge in August, Magstadt became a public advocate of vaccination, giving impassioned pleas to the Josephine County Board of Commissioners and the Grants Pass City Council. Her community involvement includes serving on the boards of directors for the NW Organization of Nurse Leaders, the Oregon Center for Nursing and the Rogue Community College Foundation.

Magstadt’s last day is March 28.

“Please join me in thanking Laura for her incredible leadership, support of quality health care and wishing her well on her new adventure,” Howard said.