Dr. Kathy Klimpel has over 35 years of healthcare experience as a registered nurse, clinical nurse specialist, and clinical informaticist. For three decades as a CNS, she was a leader of healthcare teams striving to improve and optimize the care provided to children in critical care or requiring heart, lung, or liver transplant or having pulmonary disorders. She has had positions in several places across the country (Washington University in St. Louis, National Institutes of Health’s Clinical Center, University of Maryland in Baltimore, Washington, DC, Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego). Those experiences were invaluable as she took on new roles as an informaticist. In the past 10 years, Dr. Klimpel was the operational lead for the implementation of two electronic health records (EHR), Meditech and Epic. Once implemented, Dr. Klimpel became Epic certified in two applications. In her current position as a Senior Clinical Informaticist at Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego, she continues to work with clinicians to maintain and optimize the EHR to support clinicians while enhancing patient outcomes.
Currently, Dr. Klimpel is also a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of San Diego, Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science teaching in the Healthcare Informatics Program. Her research interest includes how the use of electronic health records (EHR) and technology, specifically the use of clinical decision support, can positively impact nursing practice and patient outcomes. Kathy received her PhD from the University of San Diego, Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science, her MSN from St. Louis University and BS in Nursing from Rhode Island College.