Lucy J. Gansauer, MSN, RN, OCN, CCRP

Director of Cancer Care Delivery Research, Gibbs Cancer Center & Research Institute; AONN+ Clinical Trials Committee Co-Chair

Lucy is currently a resident of Spartanburg, South Carolina. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing and her Master in Science in Nursing with a specialty in Nursing Administration and Nursing Education at the University of Evansville. Ms. Gansauer conducted research on Patient Satisfaction and perception in the Emergency Department. Prior to joining Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System, Ms. Gansauer was a Captain in the US Air Force. During Ms. Gansauer tour of duty she was assigned to high Risk Labor and Delivery, Tactical Hospital, Critical Care, and was the Prenatal Loss Coordinator for Clark Air Base. Her responsibilities in the military included, staff education, performance improvement and quality control. She had both overseas assignments as well as stateside service. During her tour in the Philippines she was recognized for her support of “Operation Fiery Vigil” the evacuation of the military personnel after the eruption of Mount Pinatubo volcano in 1991.

Some of the responsibilities that Ms. Gansauer has had at Spartanburg Regional Medical Center included the coordination of a 21-million-dollar reengineer effort to position the organization positively for PPS. She was given the responsibility to lead the organization JCAHO accreditation for 1997. She has had ongoing responsibilities for JCAHO preparation in addition to other leadership roles. Ms. Gansauer was responsible for leading the team to develop the organization’s case management system which integrated; case management, utilization review, social work, discharge planners, and quality assurance into the current Health Management Department today. Ms. Gansauer served as Director of Research and Development. In the that role, she established the Business Development process for managing new business projects to include capital cost, fiscal, revenues, and quality. She was instrumental in capturing three million in grants in the first year of that program. One of those grant established the first breast health patient navigators at her facility In 1999 she was assigned the responsibility for preparing the Home Care division for a Focused survey. She stayed to lead that home care organization through PPS, new supply management system, home delivery pharmacy system, new computer documentation, implementation of a corporate compliance program and billing system.

In March of 2002 Ms. Gansauer accepted the responsibility for the development of the Patient Safety culture. In that role, she was responsible for Patient Safety, Employee Safety, Emergency Preparedness, Regulatory Readiness and the Environment of Care. She led the organization through a successful JCAHO preparation with a score of 98. Ms. Gansauer has extensive teaching experience in numerous healthcare settings, which has given her a broad understanding of the healthcare field in both the United Stated and internationally. Ms. Gansauer was a nursing instructor for five year at a community college. Ms. Gansauer was responsible for leading the NCI Community Cancer Center Program. Under this program navigation was expanded from two breast navigator to the eight professional disease site navigators today. Additional she was able to work with other departments in establishing two navigators in radiology that follow-up on incidental finding.

In her current role as Director of Cancer Care Delivery Research Spartanburg Regional Medical Center, she is a regular speaker for various hospital association and community groups. She is accountable for directing the organization effort in Cancer Care Delivery Research and support the NCI Clinical Research Program. Ms. Gansauer has collaborated on several clinical trials to look at the impact of navigation. Currently her site is participating in a clinical research study looking at the impact of navigation to improved research rates among African American population for early stage lung cancer. Ms. Gansauer’ s career has touched most areas and settings in healthcare over the past 30 years, which has enable her to draw from a wide range of experiences and learning, from high risk labor and deliver, home care, tactical hospital, field nursing, trauma, general office practice, oncology, and family planning, as a clinician, educator, coordinator, and leader.

Last modified: April 10, 2020

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