Lou Montana-Rhodes is the new vice president of patient care services at Vidant Beaufort Hospital.

Harvey Case, president of Vidant Beaufort Hospital, announced her appointment. She comes to her new position from Vidant Pungo Hospital, where she has served in the same leadership role since 2004. Rhodes replaces Kathy Simpson, who announced her retirement from Vidant Beaufort Hospital last month.

Rhodes, a Beaufort County native, has been in nursing since graduating from Beaufort County Community College with an associate degree in 1998. At BCCC, Rhodes graduated with honors and was the recipient of the Nursing Leadership Award. In 2009, Rhodes earned her master’s-of-science degree in nursing at East Carolina University.

“I am pleased to have Lou join our leadership team at Vidant Beaufort,” said Case. “She has done an outstanding job at Vidant Pungo. Lou has a passion for nursing and patient care as well as a tremendous work ethic. She has strong operational experience having worked in a variety of health care settings including home health, emergency medicine and nursing leadership.”

“Lou has been instrumental in leading Vidant Pungo’s quality efforts as they were the recipient of the Press Ganey-Guardian of Excellence Award for Clinical Quality in 2013.  She is a patient advocate, always putting the patient first in any decision that needs to be made. Lou is a respected professional among our health systems leadership and her nursing peers and will do a great job at Beaufort,” said Roger Robertson, president of Vidant Community Hospitals.

Simpson, who has been in nursing for nearly 40 years, will retire at the end of January.

“Kathy has been a great asset to our hospital, and we were fortunate to have her leadership in our patient care area over the past year,” said Case. “We wish her well in retirement.”