Becker’s Healthcare Podcast Darin Roark, President and COO of Wentworth-Douglass Hospital
Dec 25, 2025
Darin Roark, President and COO of Wentworth-Douglass Hospital, brings over 25 years of nursing experience to the discussion. He shares how his team significantly improved patient outcomes through quality initiatives and strategic daily huddles. Roark highlights the importance of multidisciplinary alignment and sustaining improvements going into 2026. He also addresses challenges like staffing and expansion while emphasizing growth in specialty services to keep healthcare local. Leadership, patience, and team reliance are central to his success.
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Quality Focus Drove Clinical And Financial Gains
- Doubling down on quality moved Wentworth-Douglass from lower decile to top quartile in benchmarking.
- Improving quality reduced length of stay, lowered mortality, and improved finances simultaneously.
Organizational Restructure To Tackle Quality
- Wentworth-Douglass partnered with MassGen Brigham and reorganized under the assistant chief medical officer to target quality and length-of-stay improvements.
- That focused structure helped the hospital climb Vizient rankings over 18 months.
Shorter Stays Reduce Device Infection Risk
- Intensive infection-prevention efforts produced long stretches without ICU CLABSI or CAUTI events.
- Shorter stays and fewer device infections reinforce each other to improve patient safety.