50 Most Influential Clinical Executives - 2024

Sanford is responsible for nursing, patient care services, care coordination and other functions at Chicago-based CommonSpirit, a 142-hospital system formed in 2019 through the merger of Dignity Health and Catholic Health Initiatives. Sanford, a longtime advocate of virtual nursing, is helping oversee CommonSpirit’s rollout of the Virtually Integrated Care model, in which virtual nurses support inpatient care, at all hospitals in the next five years. The system is also using virtual nurses for remote patient monitoring and to help with admissions, discharges and transfers.