Heather Hutson, RN, IP-BC

Motivated by her dedication to improving the well-being of the geriatric population, Heather’s passion for the long-term care industry has driven her professional success.  Heather is the founder and CEO of PreventionID and the former Chief Infection Prevention Officer of AMS Infection Prevention Partners where she successfully assisted long-term care facilities across the nation to achieve regulatory compliance and to reduce infections and MDRO’s through the implementation of effective infection prevention and control programs.

Heather began her nursing career as an LPN charge nurse for Chambers Nursing Home Center, a long-term care facility in central Arkansas. After receiving her RN degree, Heather found herself back at Chambers as the Nursing Services Coordinator. Among her many responsibilities, she actively contributed to the facility’s QA program and strategically grew the census to 100% capacity. Within two years, Heather was promoted to Director of Nursing. In her new role, she oversaw the infection control program, reducing the use of unnecessarily prescribed antibiotics and lowering the facility’s infection rate by an astounding 75%. In addition to maintaining a 4–5-star rating, under her direction Chambers won many awards, including “Most Improved Quality Measure” and “Facility of The Year.”

Over the past 5 years, Heather has worked alongside public health departments to develop best practices, hosted educational webinars, presented at numerous state healthcare associations’ annual conferences, and featured on healthcare-focused podcasts. A member of NADONA, the Arkansas Nursing Home Nurses Association, and nominee for Arkansas DON of the year in 2019, Heather is a Board-Certified Infection Preventionist as well as a Dementia Well-being Specialist and CPR and First-Aid instructor.