Christine (Chris) Keithly, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, is vice president patient care services and assistance chief nurse officer. With more than a decade of progressive leadership experience, she joined Bayhealth in March 2024.
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.
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.
Four-legged friends are also dear to her. She supports causes that focus on animal welfare. As an owner of four dogs, she has a passion for ensuring the well-being of animals and advocating for their rights. Her hobbies include restoring and transforming vintage furniture. And you can find her enjoying the beaches of Delaware and the east coast as her way of relaxing as self-care is a priority of hers and something she advises for all health care workers.
Connect with Chris Keithly via LinkedIn.