Kristene Dentler, BSN, RN

Biography

My name is Kristene Dentler, and I am a Registered Nurse with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN). I have spent 20 years in nursing, learning from the inside how hard our healthcare system can be to navigate—and deciding to use that experience to stand beside patients and families as they find their way through it. I began my career in acute care, on a step-down telemetry unit at Sentara Health Hospital in Williamsburg, Virginia. From there, I moved into long-term care at Riverside Health System in Newport News, Virginia (2007-2011), where I served as a Clinical Educator, worked in Minimum Data Set (MDS) coordination and survey compliance, and served in Director of Nursing and Assistant Director of Nursing roles in skilled nursing. That work taught me how much good care depends on coordination, clear documentation, and someone paying attention to the whole picture. I later returned to acute care as an RN at Meritus Medical Center in Hagerstown, Maryland (2011-2013). From 2013 to 2020, I worked at WellSpan Health as an RN Case Manager and as a Same Day Services RN in gastroenterology endoscopy and interventional radiology, followed by a year in home health. In case management, my work centered on care transitions, post-discharge follow-up, and helping patients—many of them older adults—coordinate care across multiple physicians and settings. Again and again, I saw how much support people need beyond an office visit, particularly after a discharge or when care is complex. In 2020, I joined WeCare tlc as a Clinical Nurse Manager, and since April 2022 I have served as Clinical Training & Quality Assurance Manager. In that role, I also serve as an electronic health record (EHR) administrator, leading backend configuration, template development, and workflow design, and supporting training and quality initiatives across multiple sites. That work deepened my interest in how systems and technology either help or hinder care — and led me to pursue a Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) in Nursing Informatics at Grand Canyon University, which I expect to complete in July 2027. My coursework includes health information technology standards such as HL7 and FHIR. The moment I realized patients need an advocate of their own was not at work, but at home. Helping to support and care for my own mother and my in-laws, I faced the challenges of multiple providers, hospital stays, medication reconciliation issues, and complex medical issues. Those experiences helped me realize patient care needs an advocate between medical visits—someone to connect the pieces that can otherwise fall through the gaps. That decision became Waypoint Health Advocacy, the private-pay concierge nursing practice I founded under KBD Consulting LLC in Franklin County, Pennsylvania. True to its tagline, "Your waypoint through the healthcare maze," Waypoint focuses on education, advocacy, care coordination, navigation, oversight, and support for people who have been discharged from a healthcare facility, who see multiple physicians, who have complex care needs, or who simply need more support than an office visit allows. I hold an active, unencumbered Pennsylvania multistate Registered Nurse license. Today, my goal is simple: help patients and families understand their care, ask informed questions, and navigate a complex system with greater clarity and confidence.