Atlantic Health System Public Relations Department
Louise Gonzalez
HACKETTSTOWN AND NEWTON, NJ – JANUARY 20, 2022 – Atlantic Health System today announced Geralda Xavier, MD, MPH, MBA, CLSSGB, FACEP, has joined as Chief Medical Officer for Hackettstown and Newton Medical Centers.
Dr. Xavier is a highly skilled physician executive with more than 15 years of experience in clinical care and medical staff leadership. She is a board-certified emergency medicine physician and maintains national certifications in clinical practice. She has a strong reputation for being a change management champion using robust process improvement, fostering team engagement and promoting psychological safety, across disciplines and departments.
Dr. Xavier comes to Atlantic Health System from NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County, where she most recently served as Chief Quality Officer and Associate Chief Medical Officer.
“I am pleased to join Atlantic Health System and contribute to their commitment to excellence in patient safety and quality,” Dr. Xavier said. “I look forward to collaborating with my peers to further our mission of providing high-quality care to the communities we serve.”
At Hackettstown and Newton Medical Centers, Dr. Xavier will play a pivotal role in supporting and advancing physician engagement, integration, and alignment with both hospitals and within Atlantic Health System. She will also work to strengthen relationships between the organization and the medical staffs, which encompasses both employed and private community physicians. Working closely with hospital leadership, clinical leaders, and leaders across Atlantic Health, Dr. Xavier will be responsible for overseeing the quality and patient safety initiatives within both medical centers.
“We are excited to have Dr. Xavier join our leadership team,” said Bob Adams, president, Hackettstown and Newton Medical Centers. “As an accomplished physician, Dr. Xavier’s experience will be invaluable as we continue to enhance our patient quality initiatives. I know she will have a positive impact across our organization.”
Prior to her role at NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County, Dr. Xavier served as Interim-Chief, Medical Director and Core Faculty of the Emergency Medicine Residency Program for the Department of Emergency Medicine at Kings County. She was instrumental in the redesign of hospital flow to improve clinical operations, reduce potential harm events, increase staff productivity/satisfaction, integration of performance improvement using key performance indicators and implementation of split-flow.
Dr. Xavier earned her Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry from Brooklyn College. She then earned her Doctor of Medicine and Master of Public Health at Robert Wood John Medical School, and a Master of Business Administration from Haslam College of Business at the University of Tennessee. Dr. Xavier is also a Safety, Quality, Informatics and Leadership (SQIL) Fellow from Harvard School of Medicine, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Improvement Advisor, Fellow of America’s Essential Hospitals and Certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt.
Dr. Xavier is the successor to Paul Owens, MD, who served in the position of Chief Medical Officer for Hackettstown and Newton Medical Centers for more than nine years. Owens retired in July 2021.
About Atlantic Health System
Atlantic Health System is at the forefront of medicine, setting standards for quality health care in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the New York metropolitan area. Powered by a workforce of more than 18,000 team members and 4,800 affiliated physicians dedicated to building healthier communities, Atlantic Health System serves more than half of the state of New Jersey including 11 counties and 4.9 million people. The not-for-profit system offers more than 400 sites of care, including seven hospitals: Morristown Medical Center in Morristown, NJ, Overlook Medical Center in Summit, NJ, Newton Medical Center in Newton NJ, Chilton Medical Center in Pompton Plains, NJ, Hackettstown Medical Center in Hackettstown, NJ, Goryeb Children’s Hospital in Morristown, NJ, and Atlantic Rehabilitation Institute in Madison, NJ and through its partnership with CentraState Healthcare System in Freehold, NJ.
Atlantic Medical Group, comprised of 1,000 physicians and advanced practice providers, represents one of the largest multi-specialty practices in New Jersey and joins Atlantic Accountable Care Organization and Optimus Healthcare Partners as part of Atlantic Alliance, a Clinically Integrated Network of more than 2,500 health care providers throughout northern and central NJ.
Atlantic Health System provides care for the full continuum of health care needs through 16 urgent care centers, Atlantic Visiting Nurse and Atlantic Anywhere Virtual Visits. Facilitating the connection between these services on both land and air is the transportation fleet of Atlantic Mobile Health.
Atlantic Health System leads the Healthcare Transformation Consortium, a partnership of six regional hospitals and health systems dedicated to improving access and affordability and is a founding member of the PIER Consortium – Partners in Innovation, Education, and Research – a streamlined clinical trial system that will expand access to groundbreaking research across five health systems in the region.
Atlantic Health System has a medical school affiliation with Thomas Jefferson University and is home to the regional campus of the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Morristown and Overlook Medical Centers and is the official health care partner of the New York Jets.