Bio
Sarah joined Hazelden Betty Ford in October of 2022 and is located on the corporate campus in Center City, Minnesota. Her focus provides oversight and direction to our nursing services. Sarah has responsibility for improving the quality of care at all sites.
Sarah has worked in the healthcare field for over 25 years, including over 17 years as a passionate nurse leader. Sarah comes to us from the M Health Fairview Healthcare System where Sarah held the position as the System Director of Nursing Practice and Clinical Excellence. Sarah possesses extensive experience in process improvement and is Lean certified. In her previous position, she led an interdisciplinary committee that looked at opportunities to improve the quality of care and safety for patients while adhering to the Joint Commission and other regulatory requirements.
Sarah has her Master's in Business Administration with an emphasis in Healthcare Administration. In May of 2019, Sarah received her Doctorate in Nursing Practice (DNP), specializing in Health Innovation and Leadership. She also received her Certificate in Healthcare Design from the University of Minnesota and her Basic Certification in Quality and Safety from the Institute for Health Improvement (IHI) Open School.
Sarah's role specifically focuses on planning, organizing, and directing the overall operations of Nursing and Quality. This includes ensuring quality patient care, oversight of infection control, execution of quality improvement methods, recruitment and retention of nursing staff, nursing staff training, and installing and monitoring operational best practices. Sarah collaborates with the Chief Medical Officer to design, monitor and audit Recovery Services wide quality methodologies and programs. Sarah ensures compliance with patient care quality standards as it relates to licensing and accreditation requirements and maintain performance improvement activities across the system to ensure consistent and quality care. She assures competency of all nursing staff by creating and installing consistent and effective training and onboarding systems, as well as ensuring nursing standards are measured with regularity by Nurse Managers. Sarah's role provides leadership to all site nursing managers and is recognized as an expert in the field of addiction nursing.