Nurse practitioners and physician assistants are advanced healthcare practitioners with similar responsibilities, such as diagnosing illnesses and prescribing medications. However, their training and paths toward certification differ in significant ways. This blog post unpacks the key differences between NPs and PAs to help you determine which career path best aligns with your goals. What Is a Nurse Practitioner? A nurse practitioner (NP) is a licensed clinician who provides comprehensive healthcare to patients of all ages. An NP can work in virtually any healthcare setting, diagnosing patient conditions and prescribing medications. As of October 2022, nurse practitioners have full practice authority in 27 states, meaning that they can practice Read more
Ana Lopez-Blazquez
Ana Lopez-Blazquez is Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer for Baptist Health South Florida (BHSF), the largest not-for-profit multi-hospital health care system in the region, headquartered in Coral Gables, Florida, and Chief Executive Officer of Baptist Health Enterprises the for-profit subsidiary for BHSF. Baptist Health South Florida includes Baptist Hospital of Miami, South Miami Hospital, Doctors Hospital, Homestead Hospital, Mariners Hospital, Baptist Children’s Hospital, West Kendall Baptist Hospital, Baptist Outpatient Services, Miami Cancer Institute, Baptist Health Medical Group, and Baptist Health Enterprises.
As Chief Transformation Officer, Ms. Lopez-Blazquez provides the overall leadership and direction for the development and implementation of all aspects of business transformation including organizational design, process re-engineering, change management, and implementation strategy. She also shares joint leadership and responsibility for clinical transformation initiatives with the BHSF Chief Operating Officer and Chief Physician Executive with efforts focusing on evidence-based standardization of clinical care to reduce variability and increase efficiencies.
In her role as Chief Strategy Officer for Baptist Health South Florida, Ms. Lopez-Blazquez is responsible for strategy development and strategy execution with particular emphasis on driving the growth agenda consistent with population health and value based care. This includes responsibility for strategic, business and master facility planning; market development; property acquisitions and land development projects; focusing on clinical and non-clinical services, all to further hospital and outpatient growth, expansion, and integration strategies for all Baptist Health entities and affiliates. As Chief Strategy Officer, Ms. Lopez-Blazquez serves as the chief strategic advisor to the President/CEO of Baptist Health, other Baptist Health executives, and Boards on issues of long-term impact to Baptist Health South Florida.
As Chief Executive Officer of Baptist Health Enterprises (BHE), she leads that subsidiary which includes all Baptist Health’s real estate holdings. BHE Real Estate and Development Corp., the Real Estate division within BHE, currently owns and/or manages a diverse portfolio of about 1.8 million square feet of space including a variety of clinical, physician, and office tenants. BHE Real Estate and Development Corp. provides full service property management, leasing, leasing administration/accounting, tenant relations, building engineering and construction oversight, and security and centralized surveillance services.
Ms. Lopez-Blazquez joined Baptist Hospital of Miami in 1987 as Director of Planning and has led the strategic planning and business/market development functions for Baptist since that time. Prior to joining Baptist Hospital of Miami in 1987, Ms. Lopez-Blazquez worked (1986-1987) at Orlando Regional Medical Center, a multi-hospital health care system in central Florida in various planning and program development positions, where she also completed her administrative residency as part of her graduate studies. Ms. Lopez-Blazquez also worked at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida/Provider Audit & Reimbursement Department as a Medicare compliance auditor and audit supervisor for five years.
In her almost 30-year tenure with Baptist Health South Florida, Ms. Lopez-Blazquez’s major contributions include the conceptualization and development of the Baptist Medical Plazas (centers that provide free-standing urgent care services and diagnostic imaging services throughout Miami-Dade County and Broward County, a concept which brings healthcare closer into the neighborhoods); the replacement Homestead Hospital; the new West Kendall Baptist Hospital which has the distinction of being the first new hospital in Miami-Dade County in the last several decades; and the Baptist Children’s Hospital, a “hospital within a hospital.”
Ms. Lopez-Blazquez received her Master of Business Administration and Master of Health Science from the University of Florida in 1987, and her Bachelor of Business Administration – Accounting from Florida International University in 1979.
Ms. Lopez-Blazquez is active in various health care professional associations, a graduate of Leadership Florida, Class XXII and past Board Member of Leadership Florida; a past board member of the Miami Foundation; a board member and committed volunteer of La Liga Contra el Cancer; a past board member of the Alumni Association of the University of Florida Graduate Program in Health Administration; Past Chair of the Advisory Board of Our Lady of Lourdes Academy and past Board Member of Palmer Trinity School. She is the 2008 recipient of the Bernadette Award for Outstanding Career Achievement as recognized by her high school Alma Mater, Our Lady of Lourdes Academy. In 2009, she completed the highly selective Joint Civilian Orientation Conference #78 (JCOC), the oldest and the only outreach program sponsored by the Secretary of Defense whose mission is to orient key civilian opinion leaders to increase public understanding of national defense.
