Emergency Department Welcomes New Director

Lakewood Regional Medical Center is pleased to welcome Donald Andrews, MHA, BSN, RN, CEN, as the new Director for Emergency Services. With 23 of his 25 years of experience being in emergency departments, Andrews has hit the ground running.

“Managing the emergency department is right in my wheelhouse,” said Andrews. “When the position at LRMC opened up, it just felt like a really good fit. I have experience in leadership at a Stroke Center and a STEMI Center along with management of emergency departments, so this was definitely a good fit and I’m excited to get to work.”

Honing the efficiency of the ED is Andrews’ top priority. “My number one priority is emergency department throughput,” he said. “We need the patients seen as expediently as possible.” Patients’ door-to-discharge time, door-to-doctor time and discharge time (if applicable) are all areas that will receive close scrutiny to try to cut down those times involved to become as efficient as possible. “Our goal is 120 minutes, and we are constantly striving to reach this goal,” said Andrews.

To reach those goals, Andrews will strategize the best ways to invest in his employees. “Since the ED is driven by the talented individuals who serve in it, I look forward to empowering each person to contribute to our departmental goals with his or her own unique skills and abilities,” he said. “I will do everything I can to create the kind of environment that encourages people while putting our patients first.”

At home, Andrews enjoys sharing his love for health care with his wife, an RN and director of Perioperative Services at another facility. “There’s some shop talk at home,” he said, “not a lot, but we really listen to each other.” Andrews and his wife have two grown daughters and they enjoy spending time in a cabin near Big Bear together. Andrews loves to spend his free time camping, riding motorcycles—both street bikes and dirt bikes—and traveling, when possible.

In the future, Andrews and his wife have a goal of combining their talents to serve in medical missions’ work. “When we have the luxury of time, we’d love to be able to travel and provide critical medical services, maybe in Mexico.”

Until then, he’s excited to be a part of the LRMC team. “I love it here already and am really looking forward to getting to know everyone better and working together in the days ahead,” he said.

“I would like to officially welcome Don Andrews to the Lakewood Regional Medical Center team,” said Lakewood’s CEO John Grah. “He has some great experience behind him, he’s distinguished himself as a leader, and I think he brings a lot to the table. He is going to help our emergency department become even stronger and I’m pleased he’s here.”