Dr. Putnam serves as chief nurse executive for Baptist Health South Florida, overseeing nursing practice and patient experience strategies across the region’s largest nonprofit health system. With more than 30 years of experience, she leads more than 9,200 nurses and clinical partners and is accountable for building a consistent nurse experience across the system, strengthening mentorship and development pathways, improving scheduling processes, and ensuring clinical quality and patient safety remain central in operational decisions. Dr. Putnam has helped achieve a nurse vacancy rate of just 2.7%, the lowest in the system’s history, while contributing to consistently strong Press Ganey performance and earning the Press Ganey “HX Guardian of Excellence Award” in patient experience. She is also a recognized nurse leader and innovator, receiving the “Excellence in Leadership Award” from Executive Women in Healthcare for 2022) and being named “Patient Experience Innovator of the Year” by the Millennium Alliance in 2021. As a research-focused executive, she has sponsored and led major nursing innovation and care design transformation initiatives, serving as principal investigator on nearly $10 million in federal, state and private grants.
