HONOLULU – The Queen’s Health Systems (QHS) has announced the appointments of a new senior vice president and a new director.
Bernadette Merlino has been named Senior Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at QHS. She also continues as Vice President of Queen’s Clinically Integrated Physician Network (QCIPN) and President of Queen’s Development Corporation (QDC).
Merlino is responsible for the vision, organizational leadership, development and management of strategic partnerships for the health system. Through these partnerships, she will enhance the organization’s ability to provide value to its entities and customers, and will increase market share by leading and supporting mergers and acquisitions. She will also develop business plans for ambulatory market expansion of the various health services to grow QHS’ regional network of care, working closely with executives and physicians representing clinical programs at multiple QHS locations and joint ventures.
For the past six years, Merlino has served as QHS Vice President of Ambulatory Services, overseeing the development and expansion of primary care, urgent care and specialty services. She had previously worked at QHS for nearly 20 years before joining Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, California in 2005. At Huntington, she served as Vice President of Clinical Strategy and Physician Development before being named Vice President of Ambulatory Services.
The Massachusetts native earned her bachelor’s degree in occupational therapy from Boston University and her Master of Business Administration from the University of San Francisco.
Jennifer Siatafu has been promoted to Director of Behavioral Health Services at The Queen’s Medical Center (QMC).
Siatafu will provide leadership in the development and implementation of strategic and innovative initiatives for the Behavioral Health Services Department. She is responsible for overseeing inpatient services (Kekela and Family Treatment Center) and community-based services (Day Treatment Center and Queen’s Counseling Services).
Siatafu has been with QMC since 2000, when she started as a psychiatric mental health nurse for inpatients. She was promoted to Clinical Operations Manager in 2017 and became Nurse Manager in 2019.
The Kaneʻohe native has a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Hawaiʻi at Manoa. She completed her Doctorate of Nursing Practice in 2019.
