Karen Garvey is passionate about her role as vice president of safety and clinical risk management for Parkland Health, in large part because of the quality of Parkland’s work and its essential role in our community.
“I feel like Parkland is a hidden gem,” Karen says. “There’s so much that they do for the community.”
Inspired by her mother, Karen pursued a career in nursing and initially worked in pediatric oncology, OB and neonatal care. Following a tragic hospital event where she worked at the time, Karen transitioned into leadership and risk management hospital work.
“It really showed me more of the legal risk side of healthcare that I had not been exposed to,” she says.
After working at notable institutions like the Cleveland Clinic, Karen has worked at Parkland for 11 years. While her title has remained the same, her role has evolved with a focus on high reliability and safety science while educating staff on systemic causes of medical errors and the importance of shared responsibility in patient safety.
In 2019, Karen co-founded the Supporting Parkland Staff (SPARKS) peer support program at Parkland. The program provides confidential support to Parkland employees who experience stressful events in the workplace such as patient deaths, workplace violence or medical errors.
“We have encountered or worked with well over 6,000 employees in that time frame, so roughly 1,000 a year,” Karen says.
Karen exemplifies her passion for Parkland through her own philanthropy as well. Following her husband’s serious bicycle accident and the trauma care provided to him at Parkland, she established a patient safety education fund to honor his caregivers.
She continues to support the SPARKS program financially to give back to the family of compassionate healthcare workers, and she continues to advocate in support of Parkland.
“It’s not just a place where you want to go when there’s trauma,” Karen says of Parkland and its impact. “That’s what people know, but there’s so much more when you enter the doors of the organization.”