Bayhealth Welcomes Keithly as Vice President Patient Care Services and Assistant Chief Nurse Officer
Bayhealth is pleased to welcome Christine (Chris) Keithly, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, as vice president patient care services and associate chief nursing officer. With more than a decade of progressive leadership experience, she joined Bayhealth earlier this year.
Propelled by her strong desire to foster excellence in nursing practice at Bayhealth, she works alongside nurses to create efficiencies using best practice and data to deliver a standard of high-quality care for patients. She thrives on seeing how the impact of collaboration improves patient outcomes. In her role, she collaborates with the chief nurse officer to nurture evidence based clinical nursing practice across the health system.
“I’m inspired by the transformational work that Chris has spearheaded on behalf of our patients and care teams across Bayhealth,” said Senior Vice President & Chief Nurse Executive Rosi Wurster, DNP, RN, MPH, NEA-BC, CEN. “She is an exceptional partner in nurturing and inspiring a culture of excellence in nursing practice and we’re thrilled to have her in our Bayhealth family.”
With most of her career spent in Magnet® designated health systems, Keithly helps to manage several key initiatives at Bayhealth, including Capacity Management, ongoing Magnet® designation, Injury and Violence Prevention, Operational Excellence, Patient Safety and Quality Improvement. She is supporting the Virtual Operations Center (VOC) team to enrich patient flow opportunities, delivering on creative approaches to grow a flexible workforce, enhancing the business acumen and fiscal reporting of the patient care services team, optimizing the work and technology of clinical informatics, and guiding nursing excellence efforts among inpatient teams.
Prior to her role at Bayhealth, Keithly served at a four-hospital system where she was responsible for operational oversight of nursing centralized staffing, nursing supervisors, remote central cardiac monitoring, virtual patient monitoring, the nursing float pools, EMS transportation and the system transfer center.
A Doctor of Nursing Practice (conferred by Wilmington University), Keithly earned her Master of Science in nursing informatics at Walden University and her Bachelor of Science in nursing at Immaculata University. Her professional memberships include the Forum for Executive Women Mentorship Program, American Nurses Association, Delaware Nurses Association and the American Organization of Nurse Leaders.
Visit Bayhealth.org/Careers to learn about job opportunities. Connect with Chris Keithly via LinkedIn.
