Aventura Hospital and Medical Center has named two new department heads.

Denise J. O’Connell will be the director of behavioral health and detoxification services, an expansion of the position she held for four years before leaving Aventura in 2002 for a job in the pharmaceuticals industry. 

And John L. Tucker takes over as director of cardiopulmonary services after holding similar responsibilities at hospitals in St. Petersburg and in Georgia.

In returning to Aventura, O’Connell’s responsibilities will include leading the recently established  Renewed Hope Center, a medically supervised detoxification program for

Denise O'Connell and John Tucker have been named department heads at Aventura Hospital and Medical Center.

treatment of substance abuse patients. She also will oversee the two existing in-patient programs that make up the high-risk behavioral health services department, designed to care for patients suffering from severe psychoses.

O’Connell is a licensed mental health counselor. She holds a master’s degree in counseling psychology from Nova Southeastern University and a bachelor’s in psychology from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. 

In his new role, Tucker will oversee all EEG and EKG services and pulmonary function

studies.  He will also manage Aventura Hospital and Medical Center’s Respiratory Department and the hospital’s Sleep Disorders Center.

He brings both clinical and operations management experience, having served as the director of respiratory cares services at Shepherd Center in Atlanta and as director of respiratory services and patient transportation at Northside Hospital and Heart Institute in St. Petersburg. Tucker also served as the director of the neurocardiopulmonary department and clinical Laboratory services at Northlake Medical Center in Tucker, GA for more than seven years. He also has served as the lead respiratory therapist at Henry Medical Center in Stockbridge, GA.

He is a retired Navy corpsman and holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Walden University in Baltimore.