After serving for five months as interim president of South Florida Baptist Hospital, Karen Kerr has taken the helm as president.
“I am very excited about the opportunity,” Kerr said.
Kerr took over as interim president last August, after former president Steve Nierman assumed the same role at Winter Haven Hospital. While Nierman was at South Florida Baptist Hospital, Kerr was able to work alongside him.
“He was a great mentor,” Kerr said. “We worked very close together. I was able to gain a lot of knowledge.”
From 2002 to 2013, Kerr was employed as the director of patient care services at South Florida Baptist Hospital, overseeing clinical and operational departments of the hospital. Before that, she worked as assistant administrator of patient services at South Florida Baptist Hospital and served as director of patient care services at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa.
“Karen is a dynamic leader with a true passion for serving patients and their families and has earned the support of the board, medical staff, team members and community leaders,” said Glenn Waters, president of BayCare’s Hospital Division. “She has worked to develop new programs and initiatives for neurospine, surgery, obstetrics, radiology and patient experience.”
In her new position, Kerr will focus on recruiting physicians and the construction and operation of two additional operating rooms next to the heart and vascular center at the corner of Alexander and Reynolds streets. This will assist with orthopedics and robotics.
“It will help facilitate scheduling with an increase in patients,” Kerr said. “We needed the additional room to assist those patients.”
Kerr received her bachelor’s/nursing degree from the University of South Florida, Tampa, and her master’s of business administration from Nova Southeastern University, in Ft. Lauderdale. She has served as past president of the Tampa Bay Organization of Nurse Executives, is a past chairman of the Plant City Family YMCA and a past chairman and a Paul Harris Fellow of the Plant City Daybreak Rotary Club.
Kerr has been a resident of Plant City for 20 years. She is originally from Jamestown, N.Y.
“This is a great community, very supportive,” Kerr said. “The hospital is a big part of the community, and we try to be involved as much as we can. We appreciate the support. We want to provide services here so people don’t have to leave town for their health care.”
Contact Amber Jurgensen at ajurgensen@plantcityobserver.com.
