Navy Capt. Frank P. Pearson relieved Navy Capt. Lisa Mulligan as commanding officer of Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton during a Change of Command Ceremony June 14, 2017.

Over six hundred hospital staff, friends and family members attended the ceremony, which was held outside in the hospital's Medal of Honor Mall overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

The guest speaker for the event was Rear Adm. Paul Pearigen, commander, Navy Medicine West and former commanding officer of Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton.

"Your commitment to fostering partnerships and centering on patient care has left a lasting impact not only for Marines, Sailors and families as Camp Pendleton but for the Southern California Region and beyond," Pearigen said. "As you depart the command today, accept my sincere thanks for your contributions as well as my confidence as you transition to the role of the Chief Medical Officer for Navy Medicine."

Mulligan then gave her detaching remarks where she thanked her family, mentors and hospital staff.

"Most of all, I want to say thank you. This has been an exceptional tour and the crew here is second to none," Mulligan said.

She went on to talk about the staff's hard work in creating a culture of safety and the journey to become a high reliability organization.

"In addition to dramatically improving safety, we have improved quality across a very wide spectrum," said Mulligan. "We now lead Navy Medicine in population health metrics, our perinatal team continues to raise the bar with innovative training and our mental health team has created remarkable partnerships with providers embedded in Marine units and with Marine Corps Community Services to improve communication and provide timely mental health services to our active duty Marines and Sailors, just to name a few."

After reading his orders and assuming command of the hospital, Pearson gave his remarks. "I want to build on the great success forged during Capt. Mulligan's command," Pearson said. "We will be focused on 'job one,' which is readiness and providing highly reliable and safe healthcare to the Marines, Sailors and their families that we are privileged to serve.

He concluded by assuring all that NHCP ..."will continue to innovate and drive health superiority to the best imaginable level so that we as a force of Marines and Sailors are ready anytime and anywhere."

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