Denise Ray Named Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President of Piedmont Hospital

Denise Ray has been named chief operating officer and senior vice president of Piedmont Hospital. Ray’s responsibilities include planning, coordination and implementation of hospital clinical operations.

“Denise brings more than 20 years of progressive healthcare experience to this executive leadership position,” said Robert Maynard, president and CEO of Piedmont Hospital. “She has spent her career working in various administrative and clinical leadership roles in the five-hospital, 728-bed Erlanger Health System in Chattanooga, Tenn., and we know she will be a great asset to Piedmont Hospital.”

Ray said, “Piedmont is an exceptional healthcare institution, and it is important for me to work with an organization that values quality and service excellence. I can’t go anywhere in Atlanta without people talking about what a wonderful place Piedmont is. They have done it right at Piedmont all these years, and I am proud to build upon its greatness.”

As senior vice president of operations at Erlanger, her responsibilities included operational responsibility for the Baroness Erlanger Hospital, the main tertiary hospital and Academic Medical Center, and the East Campus. As chief nursing officer, her system-wide responsibilities included overseeing nursing and the various clinical service lines as well as other administrative functions. She held roles as senior vice president, Patient Care Services at Erlanger Hospital, and Administrator of CONTINuCARE Home Health Services.

Ray received her associate of science degree in nursing from Dalton State College in Dalton. She earned a bachelor’s degree in organizational management from Covenant College in Lookout Mountain and a master’s in business administration from Southern Adventist University in Chattanooga.

She lives in Buckhead with her husband, Bill. Her daughter, Katie, is a clinical pharmacist in Chattanooga at Erlanger.