Contact: Sara Quale
sara.quale@bannerhealth.com
(970) 810-6133
GREELEY, Colo. (July 18, 2019) – An Ohio native brings her passion for quality patient care and nearly 20 years of nursing experience to Colorado as she joins Banner Health in this month.
Elaine Storrs, MHA, BSN has been named chief nursing officer for North Colorado Medical Center and the Banner Health Western Region. She started July 15.
Storrs is relocating to Colorado from Ohio where she has worked as a nurse and senior executive in the industry. Her professional interests center on quality and safety, working in the best interests of health care patients and members of her teams.
She said she recognizes the importance of building a strong workplace culture that starts with communication. “You can’t have a safe environment if you don’t have an open culture. All of the staff in a hospital need to feel empowered to speak up,” she said. “The best solutions come from the front line.”
Storrs will provide leadership and direction and guide day-to-day nursing operations, including continuous improvement efforts of nursing services and team member expectations. Her office will be based at NCMC in Greeley, and she will provide leadership for the chief nursing officers at Banner’s 10 rural hospitals across six states.
“I appreciate Elaine’s focus on building relationships with nurses, medical staff and throughout the hospitals,” said Margo Karsten, CEO of Banner Health in Northern Colorado and President of Banner’s Western Region.
Most recently, Storrs served as CNO and Vice President of Patient Care Services for Mercy Health – Springfield Region in Springfield, Ohio. In this role, among other accomplishments, she reduced voluntary turnover of nurses, reduced avoidable readmissions, engaged industry partners to recruit top talent, improved supply chain efforts to reduce costs and supported efforts to reduce opioid use in the emergency department.
About Banner Health
Headquartered in Arizona, Banner Health is one of the largest nonprofit health care systems in the country. The system owns and operates 28 acute-care hospitals, Banner Health Network, Banner – University Medicine, academic and employed physician groups, long-term care centers, outpatient surgery centers and an array of other services; including Banner Urgent Care, family clinics, home care and hospice services, pharmacies and a nursing registry. Banner Health is in six states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nebraska, Nevada and Wyoming. For more information, visit www.BannerHealth.com.