Banner Health leader Margo Karsten’s three offices share one thing

Margo Karsten of Banner Health decorated her three offices in Fort Collins, Greeley and Loveland with one common feature — photos of her travels with her two sons and daughter.

“They bring me joy and help me be clear on my priorities,” Karsten said. “This work is exciting, and you could do it 24-7.”

Karsten, 56, who lives in Windsor, makes sure she has time for her children — her sons attend the University of Northern Colorado and her daughter is at Windsor High School — and her hobbies of running, paddleboarding, kayaking, hiking, dancing and reading. This, she balances with her position as president of Banner Health’s Western Region that she began in January.

Since September 2016, Karsten also served as chief executive officer of Banner Fort Collins Medical Center in Fort Collins, North Colorado Medical Center in Greeley and McKee Medical Center in Loveland. She provides leadership for the three hospitals, as well as the local off-site facilities they operate. As president of the Western Region, she oversees eight additional acute and critical access hospitals in Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska and California.

“I really appreciated the work Banner is doing in our rural facilities,” Karsten said. “To be part of the leadership structure was exciting to me.”

Each of the facilities Karsten oversees has its own CEO, and her role is to make sure their needs are met. She does this by helping allocate capital dollars and providing leadership development and strategic assistance. 

“Margo has an unparalleled ability to connect with people on their level. She is highly transparent and has a great deal of charisma and enthusiasm,” said Roberta Bean, Northern Colorado chief nursing officer for Banner Health. “Margo is curious and a great listener. With these skills, she is able to connect those she leads to her broader strategy and vision. Margo is high energy and extremely positive.”

Karsten’s aim is to visit each of the sites she oversees one to two times a year to check in with the physicians and staff and to be there for celebrations or any arising needs. As she stops in to walk the facilities and greet employees — there are 50,000 system-wide — she wants to make sure Banner Health is providing the best health care and employing the best practices, while giving the public easy access to its facilities and services, she said. She also visits Banner Health’s corporate office in Phoenix, Ariz., on a monthly basis and attends plenty of physician and board meetings.

“Humbled” is the word Karsten uses to describe her site visits.

“I’m very humbled by the commitment I see by everyone,” Karsten said, explaining that the employees she meets are proud to be in their roles. “The pride I saw not only in innovation but in clinical quality was amazing.”

Karsten learns about that commitment from the hundreds of letters, notes and emails she sees from patients about “how amazing their care has been,” she said. She joined Banner Health to be part of a system focused on innovation and on health, wellness and preventative care versus on treating illness, she said. She appreciates the organization’s mission statement, “Making health care easier, so life can be better.” 

“Benevolent” is another word Karsten uses that describes Banner Health’s approach to care, taking in patients no matter their situation, she said.

“Banner is a very benevolent health system,” Karsten said.

As she makes her rounds, Karsten’s job ends up being divided into thirds for community relations and board-related activities, internal communication and facility specific work, and follow-up on business plans and strategy. She hopes that in the next five years patients are healthier and that Banner Health has brought to them the best level of care.

“Whenever you enter one of our facilities, it’s the best experience you can imagine,” Karsten said.

Prior to coming to Banner Health, Karsten served as chief executive officer of Cheyenne Regional Medical Center, a position she took in 2013, and also of Creative Health Care Management in Eden Prairie, Minn. Among her other roles, she has served as faculty affiliate for the University of Colorado Denver and Regis University and worked as CEO, chief operating officer and chief nursing officer for several hospitals, including St. Joseph Hospital in Denver and Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, now part of UCHealth.

Karsten earned a doctorate in organizational development and human resources from Colorado State University and a master’s degree in nursing administration from the University of New Mexico. Her bachelor’s degree is in nursing from the University of Minnesota.

Originally from Minnesota, Karsten entered the health care field in the 1980s when her father told her and her five siblings to choose something that makes them happy but also is needed. She decided on nursing, spending 1½ years at the bedside before going the leadership route, she said.

Karsten’s first job was as a nurse at the Clinic Hospital, Methodist Campus, located at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. She then became assistant nurse manager in orthopedics, wanting to make a difference for the nursing staff and to show appreciation of the work they did, something she saw lacking from administration.

“If I could take on a leadership role, I thought I could make a difference in a different way,” said Karsten, who spent the past 22 years in various executive roles. “I felt I could help influence the culture in which people delivered care and received care.”

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