Heart of Safety Coalition

Leading across the three pillars of care team safety – Deborah Visconi, MHA

02.12.2026

Our Heart of Safety Declaration of Principles was co-authored with leaders across a diverse set of U.S. healthcare systems, including academic, community and safety net organizations. To advance this new, expanded definition of care team safety Coalition co-founders invited healthcare CEOs from across the country to publicly declare their commitment to the aspirational principles in the Declaration. Deborah Visconi, CEO of Bergen New Bridge Medical Center, a 933-bed acute and long-term care hospital in New Jersey, was one of the first CEOs to join the movement.

In this episode of Caring Greatly, Liz Boehm talks with Deb about what it means to lead across the three pillars of care team safety – psychological and emotional safety, dignity and inclusion, and physical safety – at the fourth largest publicly owned hospital in the United States. Deb shares her leadership approach to creating transparecy and trust so that team members feel safe to speak up at work. Deb shares the importance of dignity, inclusion and representation – especially in a safety net system that serves a highly diverse patient population. She also talks about efforts that have reduced workplace violence by double digit percentages, which remains a key priority in a system with more than 300 behavioral health beds.

For more than 30 years Deb has provided visionary leadership to hospitals and healthcare systems across the New Yorkand New Jersey metropolitan region. In 2017, she joined Bergen New Bridge, where she has transformed the hospital into a community asset and destination medical center. Deb is a visionary leader with a passion for elevating patient and care team experiences, leading with a focus on compassion, consistency and quality. Her entrepreneurial style and strategic planning expertise has enabled her to navigate highly complex environments with creativity and poise to expand programs, improve services and enhance provider relations.

As a Latinx hospital leader, Deb understands the unique issues and needs of underserved communities, which she has prioritized in the hospital’s community health needs assessment process and its ongoing outreach efforts. This work led to the hospital’s development of the first LGBTQ Wellness Center in Northern New Jersey. And in 2018, to increase care access to the 20,000 Bergen County veterans, the medical center became a Veterans Community Care Provider. Driven by service, Deb is an active community volunteer and board member, serving on several local, state and national boards for healthcare associations, executive leadership organizations, universities and more. Her leadership skills, stewardship and numerous accomplishments have earned her and Bergen New Bridge many awards and industry accolades.

Deborah Visconi is a leader who cares greatly.