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Reveal. Plan. Implement.

Identify gaps, remove barriers, and empower your team with Pathwork Exec

Welcome to Pathwork Exec, a healthcare consulting firm dedicated to paving the way toward more effective, efficient, and patient-centric healthcare organizations. Rooted in the power of innovation and collaboration, our mission is to partner with healthcare-related businesses to offer insights and practical solutions that drive transformation and enhance patient care.

With a profound breadth of informed perspective that intercepts tunnel vision, we will work respectfully alongside your team, learn about your unique challenges, and turn them into opportunities for growth and improvement. Our extensive range of services addresses the diverse needs of the healthcare industry, spanning from operational transformation and strategic planning to quality performance. Let’s connect and explore the potential of what we can achieve together.

Our Consulting Categories

  • We recognize the crucial role that healthcare executive leaders perform in setting the vision and course for driving excellence in daily operations. Likewise, we recognize that, occasionally, executive leaders benefit from at-the-elbow expertise to drive operational transformation. Through our informed operational expertise from governance to medical staff to first-line staff, Pathwork Exec comes alongside you to reveal barriers to operational transformation, plan pathways for success mitigating downstream impact, and support implementation of the plan, if requested, to promote successful change. Change management functions include providing mentorships and progressive leadership development programs aimed at creating a culture of innovation, empowering executives and management, and instilling a positive energy that permeates the entire organization. Our unwavering support for improving and recreating healthcare extends to not-for-profit and non-profit entity boards, ensuring the establishment of rigorous practices and optimal performance.

  • In today’s volatile healthcare environment, the strategic planning process of old no longer serves the agility needed for developing effective healthcare strategy. Using informed strategic planning methods to support your team in transforming the business model, Pathwork Exec uses scenario design and peripheral scanning to enhance and reveal strategies that provide your organization with the most sustainable, competitive advantages.

  • Chief Nursing Officers (CNOs) form the heartbeat of healthcare organizations by overseeing the crucial nursing staff who make direct patient contact. Our customized mentorships and leadership development programs for nursing leadership empower CNOs to lead their nursing teams with inspiration and operational competence, ultimately enhancing patient care and fostering a thriving healthcare environment with hardwired operations.

  • We understand that nurses, doctors, support team members, and administrative professionals are the face of your organization and represent its core values daily--creating the cultural foundation. Through our informed gap analysis process, we develop multi-faceted organization plans to build essential knowledge and skills, establish the culture for transformation and innovation, align the organization, break down silos, and build collaborative processes for agile decision-making to enable them to achieve exceptional quality results, operational excellence, and innovation.

  • A healthcare facility’s environment profoundly impacts the workers and patients, making construction and remodeling projects a platform for positive change and connection with the community. Our unique, clinically informed experiences with construction management cater to healthcare construction projects of all sizes, from large-scale hospital replacement projects to expansion and remodel projects. Collaborating closely with the organizational team and contractors and facilitating multi-disciplinary decision-making, we promote patient and team safety as the pinnacle of focus during the planning process, the resulting disruption of the campus and routine processes of patient care delivery, the logistics of occupation, and the follow-up reinforcement of team adoption of new processes. Compliance with all regulatory and code requirements while creating evidenced-based, healing environments that optimize daily functions is the focus during design development.

  • If you’re seeking to revolutionize your healthcare practice, streamline processes, or simply navigate the industry’s complexities, we are here to help. At Pathwork Exec, we understand the challenges you face and are eager to collaborate with you on your transformative journey. Let’s connect and explore the immense potential of what we can achieve together. We look forward to joining together to shape the future of healthcare and work towards a healthier community.

Meet the President of Pathwork Exec

Hello there! I am Carol Wolfenbarger, President of Pathwork Exec. Before beginning my healthcare consulting journey, I wove together a diverse background and extensive executive experience in healthcare, shaping what I affectionately call my “patchwork quilt” in the industry.

While it all began with hands-on roles such as a patient care attendant, unit clerk, and ICU technician, my informed executive experiences have included C-Suite roles as CEO, COO, and CNO. With foundations as a Registered Nurse and leadership in utilization management, accreditation readiness, quality management, and operations, I am strategically positioned to provide informed and valuable insights for your journey.

Passion for Knowledge

My passion for sharing knowledge has been relentless throughout my career, including serving as an adjunct instructor in an associate degree nursing program, where I enjoyed mentoring and educating the next generation of healthcare professionals. Throughout my career, I’ve ventured into various realms, including home health, regional primary care, and behavioral health entities while garnering a wealth of progressive leadership experience in acute care hospitals. My love for sharing knowledge and inspiring others catapulted me into executive leadership of hospitals.  My next natural step is extending this passion through healthcare consulting, where I can support and edify healthcare entities on their own journey. My recommendations for addressing a gap in practice will be grounded in evidence-based business guidelines to promote success.

Embracing Challenges

Embracing diverse challenges, I’ve successfully led growth initiatives, strategy development, strategy implementation, certificate of need navigation, transformation projects, pilot projects, service line development, performance improvement initiatives, regulatory compliance, and accreditation compliance efforts. My repertoire extends to overseeing substantial construction projects, including a remarkable $49 million dollar replacement acute care hospital. Additionally, I’ve lead strategic initiatives, contractual negotiation and management, and building strong community relationships.

My Approach

The breadth and variety of my experiences set me apart, granting me a unique, informed perspective and a keen ability to recognize downstream impacts, identify potential barriers, and skillfully navigate obstacles with decreased resistance. I offer personal and individualized services driven by my deeper mission of supporting excellence in patient care. My approach extends beyond providing a mere gap analysis; I strive to ensure the sustainability of any change management by evaluating culture readiness, securing leadership buy-in, and actively supporting initiatives to ensure successful adoption.

My Mission

I am committed to making a meaningful difference in this dynamic healthcare landscape. My aim is to empower organizations to thrive by developing effective and lasting transformations. With a passion for enhancing the sustainability of positive changes, I am dedicated to driving cultural alignment, fostering leadership support, and empowering successful adoptions. Together, let’s forge a path toward a stronger, more resilient healthcare future!