Denise Smith, RN, MS, CLNC, HACP-CMS
Head of Consulting & Senior Consultant
Denise Smith is Head of Consulting Services and a Senior Consultant at Courtemanche & Associates. Working in collaboration with the C&A Leaders, Denise manages Courtemanche & Associate’s business development initiatives and provides consulting services and support. With her extensive healthcare experience, Denise serves as a knowledgeable resource to new and existing clients, helping to guide them through their accreditation and regulatory needs.
Denise has more than 40 years of experience and expertise in Infection Prevention, Sterile Processing, Legal Nurse Consulting, Quality and Resource Management, Clinical Education, in acute inpatient and outpatient care settings. Clinically, Denise is a licensed Registered Nurse with an extensive background in Infection Prevention and Control for perioperative settings, sterile processing, and quality management. Additionally, she is a Certified Legal Nurse and has aided organizations for EMTALA, Medical-Surgical, and Health Care Administration areas of concern.
An avid healthcare quality educator, she has served as adjunct faculty at Saint Elizabeth College in Morristown, NJ, where she focused on issues in healthcare management, technology, the environment, and strategic planning. In her Quality Improvement roles, she has assisted organizations with regulatory readiness, plans of correction, infection control, policy development, competency development, and medical staff credentialing. Her insights and understanding of the regulations were instrumental in the development of tools and resources that enabled successful organizational adherence to regulatory standards. Other experience includes managing patient care settings and departments, such as Surgery, Endoscopy, Hemodialysis, Cardiac Cath Labs, Orthopedics, Med-Surg, and Sterile Processing, among others. She has also served on the Executive team as the Vice President of Patient Services.
Denise is a graduate of Christ Hospital School of Nursing in Jersey City, NJ, and the Jersey City State College in Jersey City, NJ where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Health Education and a Master of Science in Health Administration. She is a certified CMS Healthcare Accreditation Professional through CIHQ, is trained as a DNV Internal Auditor for Healthcare, and is a certified Legal Nurse Consultant. She is a member of the American Association of Legal Nurse Consultants, the National Alliance of Certified Legal Nurse Consultants, and The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).
