South Florida Baptist Hospital president Karen Kerr has been leading within the BayCare system for approximately three decades. Now she has been tapped to add President of Bartow Regional Medical Center to her resume.
The new title will act as a conjunction rather than as a replacement to her current role at SFBH. Bartow lost its president, Phil Minden, in Jan. 2019 when he took the role as president of St. Joseph’s Hospital – South in Riverview. Kerr is expected to officially slip into the double duty on Feb. 25.
“I am excited to have the opportunity to expand an already great hospital and continue to improve upon the strides the team has made in quality improvements,” Kerr said in a news release. “I look forward to building physician relationships and becoming involved in the Bartow community.”
For almost 30 years now, Kerr has held a variety of roles at SFBH and St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa. She officially became the president of SFBH in Plant City in August of 2013.
SFBH is a 147-bed acute care facility that offers a variety of diagnostic, rehabilitative, therapeutic, surgical and women’s services. BRMC is another acute care faculty that serves Bartow, Fort Meade, south Lakeland, Mulberry, rural south Polk County and northern Hardee County. It has four surgery suites and two gastroenterology suites on top of its emergency services.
“South Florida Baptist Hospital is part of the fabric of the Plant City community and my commitment to the continued success of our relationship is unwavering,” Kerr said. “Fortunately, we have strong leadership teams both here and in Bartow, so I’ll have tremendous support while taking on additional responsibilities.”
Under Kerr’s leadership SFBH has transformed into an award winning institution that provides exemplary care. When she was brought on the hospital was breaking ground on a new surgical center. The expansion brought the total number of operating rooms up to seven and helped keep patients in need of care in Plant City so they didn’t have to drive to the other side of the county for surgeries.
Since then the hospital has opened a heart and vascular center, won the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award, added a cath lab, created the Charles and Betty Grimes Critical Care Center, achieved the Pathway to Excellence designation and continues to rank in the top percentage of hospitals of its size for a variety of its services.
Kerr received her bachelor of science/nursing degree from the University of South Florida, Tampa and a masters of business administration from Nova Southeastern University, Ft. Lauderdale. On top of being president of SFBH, Kerr has also served as president of the Tampa Bay Organization of Nurse Executives.
She’s no stranger to the Plant City community and is attendance representing the hospital at most events in town. She’s been the chairman of the Plant City Family YMCA as well as chairman of the Plant City Daybreak Rotary Club. In 2016 she received the Plant City YMCA’s Strong Leader Award.
She is currently a member of the executive committee of the Plant City Economic Development Corporation. Just last month Kerr was inducted as the chairman of the Plant City Chamber of Commerce where she is already working tirelessly to further advance its membership services and build bridges between Plant City and Tallahassee.
“Karen is a dynamic leader who has been with BayCare for almost 30 years,” Glenn Waters, executive vice president and chief operating officer of BayCare, said in a news release. “As president of South Florida Baptist Hospital, she has worked to develop new initiatives for neurospine, surgery, obstetrics, radiology and patient experience. We are confident that her expertise will be an asset to Bartow as the hospital continues its focus on extraordinary care.”