Barbara Bugella, RN, MSN, MBA

Associate

Barbara Bugella, RN, MS, MBA is an associate with Barrins & Associates Consulting. In that role, she works with psychiatric hospitals and behavioral health organizations nationwide to support them in achieving and maintaining Joint Commission accreditation and CMS compliance. As a consultant, she conducts training, gap analysis, and mocks surveys and provides technical assistance on Joint Commission and CMS standards and survey process.

Ms. Bugella has over 30 years of public and private sector experience in Behavioral Healthcare. Most recently, she served as Chief Operating Officer of a State Mental Health and Addiction Services Agency. In that role, she was responsible for operational oversight of state-operated Local Mental Health Authorities and inpatient psychiatric hospital with 600+ beds that also provide detox, residential, ACT teams, Mobile Crisis, Community Support, and outpatient services. She also managed the Human Resources, Information Technology, and Compliance Departments.

Ms. Bugella has extensive experience in program design, project management, and leadership development. Her regulatory experience includes TJC readiness, CMS regulatory compliance, state licensing, and management of a major Dept. of Justice Settlement agreement.

Ms. Bugella earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing from the University of St. Joseph in Connecticut and her master’s degree in business administration from the University of Hartford in Connecticut.

Client feedback: “Barbara’s leadership experience in both operations and regulatory compliance was extremely valuable for us. She not only knew the standards but also how to operationalize them and make them work in our setting. We were very grateful to have her as our consultant.”