Karen Nelson joins Spaulding and Partners HealthCare at Home as its New Vice President of Quality, Compliance and Regulatory Affairs

Partners Continuing Care (PCC) which is comprised of the Spaulding Rehabilitation Network and Partners HealthCare at Home announced that Karen Nelson will assume the newly created role of Vice President for Quality, Compliance and Regulatory Affairs starting in mid September. She will coordinate all quality and compliance programs for PCC and its almost 5,000 person workforce which provides a comprehensive array of rehabilitation, long term acute care, skilled nursing, and home health care services to patients and their families.

“Karen joins us with a wealth of experience and leadership in the field. She brings a proven track record of creating successful initiatives that improve the quality of care for patients. Her vision and strong clinical expertise will only further solidify PCC as the leading post acute provider in our region,” said David E. Storto, President, Partners Continuing Care.

For the past six years, she has served as the Senior Vice President of Clinical Affairs for the Massachusetts Hospital Association (MHA), which is the collective voice of the state’s teaching, community, rehabilitation and long term acute care hospitals. In her position at MHA, Karen provided strategic direction, leadership and project management to MHA for all activities related to clinical issues, health care quality, patient safety, public health, professional practice, the health care workforce, and health information technology.

“Karen’s new role builds on her years in hospitals, coupled with a policy perspective on healthcare from her time at MHA,” said the Massachusetts Hospital Association’s President & CEO Lynn Nicholas. “Karen has shown great leadership and tenacity both encouraging and supporting MHA members to push the envelope on quality. Thanks to her, the hospital community has been able to significantly advance its quality and patient safety agenda.”

She also has served as the point person for MHA's innovative PatientCareLink program. Prior to joining MHA she served as the Executive Director of Clinical Compliance & Risk Management at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), where she worked in progressive leadership roles since 1996.

Karen is a Registered Nurse who received her B.S. from Saint Joseph College and a Masters in Public Administration from Suffolk University School of Management. She is on the Boards of Directors of the MA Coalition for the Prevention of Medical Errors, the MA Center for Nursing and the Organization of Nurse Leaders of MA and Rhode Island. She also was appointed to and recently chaired the Advisory Committee to the MA Health Care Quality & Cost Council.