Karen S. Owings, MSN, RN, is the vice president of Patient Care Services and chief nursing officer at MedStar Union Memorial Hospital and MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital.
In this role, she oversees the integrated nursing program for both hospitals.
Owings started her nursing career at MedStar Union Memorial in 1986, achieving recognition for committee work and initiatives in surgery, orthopaedics, geriatrics and telemetry. She drove joint commission certifications in stroke, palliative, spine and the hip and knee programs and in 2007 was named director of Patient Care Services there.
When MedStar Good Samaritan and MedStar Union Memorial integrated in 2015, Owings became the assistant vice president of nursing operations for both hospitals, responsible for uniting the nursing programs while overseeing seven departments.
Owings has made significant contributions to system initiatives and priorities throughout her career, including the MedStar Quality and Safety Steering Committee, MedStar Stroke Committee, and MedStar Nurses Improving Care for Health system Elders (NICHE) Steering Committee. She obtained a Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt and served as the project lead on the Behavioral Health Readmission Lean Project. She is a member of the MedStar 2020 Performance Transformation Workforce Management Sub-Committee.
Owings earned her Masters of Nursing from Walden University in 2009 and her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Villa Julie College — now known as Stevenson University — in 2006.