Northeast Georgia Health System Welcomes New Members to Its Administrative Team

Published: Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Two new senior leaders are now part of the administrative team at Northeast Georgia Health System (NGHS), and it’s a homecoming of sorts for one of them.

Gainesville native Bo Walpole, MD, recently joined NGHS as Vice President of Clinical Effectiveness, and Debbie Weber was named Chief Human Resource Officer.

In his new role, Dr. Walpole oversees how providers interact with technology, data analytics and sharing, improved clinical documentation, waste reduction, cost effectiveness, patient flow and transitions of care.  He most recently served as a practicing interventional cardiologist and Chief of Cardiac Sciences at Saint Thomas Hospital in Nashville, Tenn.  Previous roles include managing partner for The Heart Group, a group of 37 cardiologists in Nashville, and Chief Medical Officer for Okyanos Heart Institute, an international private company developed to explore new options for treatment of cardiac diseases with adult stem cell technology.

Dr. Walpole received his medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia and completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at Vanderbilt University.  He went on to complete fellowships in cardiovascular diseases and interventional cardiology at Emory University, where he also received a master’s in Business Administration.  Dr. Walpole is a Certified Physician Executive, Fellow of the American College of Cardiology and Fellow of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions.  He is board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Diseases and Interventional Cardiology.

Debbie Weber was named NGHS’ Chief Human Resource Officer in July 2014, though she served in the same interim role since March 2014.  She oversees workforce planning and recruitment, employee benefits, compensation, human resource information systems, employee wellness, employee education and occupational health and safety.

Weber has more than 20 years of demonstrated human resource expertise in for-profit and not-for-profit health systems, serving both adult and pediatric patients, and has held senior positions with nationally recognized healthcare consulting firms.  Before joining NGHS, Weber most recently served as interim Vice President of Human Resources for a 6,000+ employee health system.  She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Florida and is a member of the Society for Human Resource Management, American Society for Healthcare Human Resource Administration and the Human Resource Advisory Board for Child Healthcare Corporation of America.

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ABOUT NORTHEAST GEORGIA HEALTH SYSTEM

Northeast Georgia Health System (NGHS) is a not-for-profit community health system dedicated to improving the health of our community in all we do.  The Health System offers a full range of healthcare services through its hospital in Gainesville, Northeast Georgia Medical Center (NGMC) – which is rated Georgia’s #1 Hospital (CareChex®) and one of the nation’s 100 Top Hospitals (Truven Health Analytics®).  Led by volunteer boards made up of community leaders, the 557-bed Medical Center and its medical staff of more than 500 physicians serve almost 800,000 people in more than 13 counties.  NGHS is currently building a second hospital, NGMC Braselton, which is scheduled to open in Spring 2015.  Learn more at www.nghs.com.