By EmmaLee Italia | Correspondent

St. Francis Medical Center, Trenton, will meet its enthusiastic new president April 23 – Daniel P. Moen, a seasoned health care executive with more than 35 years of health system and hospital leadership experience.

“The things I’ve heard about St. Francis are pretty amazing,” Moen said. “The team there is providing very high quality care, and I’m going do my best to make sure the institution continues to grow.”

Moen has worked with Trinity Health System, the parent of St. Francis Medical Center, serving as president and CEO of the Sisters of Providence Health System, Springfield, Mass. He was instrumental in the formation of Trinity Health New England, serving as the regional ministry’s executive vice president and COO. He also acted as interim president and CEO at St. Mary Medical Center, Langhorne, Pa. – which allowed him to develop a familiarity with the region.

“I’m really looking forward to starting at St. Francis and meeting the Bishop [David M. O’Connell, C.M.]  – I’m sure he’ll be one of my first contacts when I arrive,” Moen said. “The first couple of months I’ll be learning a lot of names and faces. I know St. Francis is an important institution in Trenton, and I’m looking forward to being a part of the team.”

Moen’s experience also includes more than two decades as the president and CEO of Heywood Hospital, Gardner, Mass. Most recently, he was the interim senior vice president of Covenant Health, where he also served as interim president of a Covenant member facility, St. Joseph Hospital, Nashua, N.H.

Moen earned his master’s degree in health administration from Clark University/University of Massachusetts Medical School, a bachelor’s degree in management from Worcester State College, and an associate’s degree in radiologic technology from Quinsigamond Community College, all in Worcester.

His first health care experience was as a radiological technologist at St. Francis Medical Center, Worchester, Mass. He also completed an internship in general hospital management at Holden Hospital, just outside Worchester. “And seven years later I became CEO there – it was a great little hospital, and a springboard for my management career.”

What drew Moen to the Catholic model of health care ultimately was its mission.

“[Its] emphasis includes caring for the poor, and carrying on the mission of the sisters who founded these institutions,” Moen explained. “It’s a calling, it’s more than a job – and it has made it clear to me why I do what I do.”

While he believes that all hospitals provide good patient care, “the transforming healing mission is very significant issue,” he noted. “Many people spend their entire career in Catholic institutions, and now I know why… I’m thrilled to be staying in Catholic health care; it’s really grounded me in my own faith.”

Moen noted that he is well-prepared, but that he also understands that each hospital is unique. Dedication to the Catholic health care mission is, for him, a priority.

“I look at my role as supportive of the caregivers,” he said. “To me the real work of the organization takes place in the employees who provide care … and having a great place to work; we need to retain and attract the very best people. Those are the things that keep me enthused, motivated and excited.”

“I just want to do what I can to help this great organization stay in Trenton for another 100-plus years,” Moen continued. “This institution was here a long time before us, and it will be here a long time after. ”

Still residing in Rindge, N.H., Moen called himself “very lucky and blessed” with his wife, Patricia “Patti” Moen, and their two adult sons – Matthew and Joshua, both of whom work in the medical field.