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Meet Kara Heggen

Karra Heggen

Welcome to Parkview DeKalb Hospital!

On October 1, DeKalb Health became part of Parkview Health and changed its name to Parkview DeKalb Hospital. DeKalb Health’s long tradition of caring aligns beautifully with Parkview DeKalb Hospital’s mission of excellent care, every person, every day. But, with any affiliation, change is inevitable. I am so grateful to our nursing and respiratory coworkers who have shown remarkable adaptability, “can do” attitude and flexibility during this year of change.

What do you need to know about Parkview DeKalb Hospital if you are interested in joining our great family? You need to know that each member of our nursing and hospital teams takes pride in their work – caring for the citizens of DeKalb County and the surrounding area. I am continually amazed at how our nursing co-workers give their time, talent and extraordinary care to serve our community in their time of need. Nursing at Parkview DeKalb Hospital is more than a job; it’s a calling. We are a trusted profession, and serve all we encounter including, other co-workers, providers and vendors, in the pursuit of providing relationship-based philosophy.

Being part of Parkview Health has ignited our nursing team to begin the journey to achieve nursing excellence through Magnet designation. At the beginning of 2020, nursing leadership and clinical nurses created professional governance through nursing clinical action teams (NCAT). NCAT is comprised of co-workers on each nursing unit. Every co-worker has a role and responsibility for shared decision making in areas affecting their work. NCAT empowers the clinical nurse to turn creative solutions into action. NCAT is making a difference in building strong teams, improving clinical outcomes, enhancing and engaging patients and families in their care, adding efficiency and value to their unit and hospital workflows.  We empower each coworker to be curious about how to improve their nursing quality, education and seek continual improvement in the human lives they serve.   

Parkview DeKalb Hospital nurses practice their art and science of nursing in many specialty areas: emergency services, medical surgical, critical care, family birthing, surgical services, cardiopulmonary rehab, wound care clinic, infection prevention, case management, quality services and professional development.

As the Vice President of Patient Care Services/CNO, I am grateful to have the privilege to lead exceptional nursing and interdisciplinary teams at Parkview DeKalb Hospital.

Caring regards,

Karra Heggen, MSN, BSN, RN, CENP
Vice President of Patient Care Services
Chief Nursing Officer