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Biosketch
Karen earned an ASN from the University of Charleston, a BSN from the University of Phoenix Tampa Campus, and an MSN from the University of Central Florida.
She has twenty years experience in hospital quality improvement specializing in the NICU and Newborn population. Recent accomplishments include Team Lead for initiative to decrease antibiotic usage in ≥ 34 week gestational age infants located in NICU/Newborn Nursery in the first three days of life with comprehensive QI methodology used to achieve a 40% sustained decrease in antibiotic usage; Team Lead for staged QI project to improve the efficiency and quality of Infant Metabolic Screens (IMS) collected in newborns delivered at Tampa General Hospital that used Lean Methodology to decrease percent of IMS arriving at state lab > 3 days from collection by 64% and decreased rate of unsatisfactory IMS by 50%; Team Lead for Mom’s Own Milk (MOM) Initiative that achieved a 15% increase in <1500 gram infants having ≥ 50% of feeding volume comprised of MOM at discharge; Team Lead for Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative for 3rd largest delivering hospital in Florida. This was a three-year project that led to designation in 2015; Team Lead for Pediatric Immunization project to improve CMS compliance with influenza and pneumococcal vaccines that leveraged technology to improve compliance from 30 and 50% respectively in 2014 to 100% in 2015.
FPQC involvement includes teaching QI methodology at QI Bootcamps sponsored by Florida Perinatal Quality Collaborative (FPQC) throughout Florida; serving as a Nurse Consultant for statewide Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome improvement initiative; original member of Infant Health Subcommittee.
Karen is an accomplished speaker presenting at both the local and national level.
Affiliation
- Performance Improvement Specialist 4
Tampa General Hospital
Tampa, Florida
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