Karla Eischens

Karla Eischens, RPh, President and CEO of Sanford Bemidji, oversees Sanford Health’s Bemidji market in northern Minnesota.

With over 25 years of experience in health care, Eischens has held several frontline and leadership roles in Bemidji since joining Sanford Health in 2000. Prior to her promotion to the top post in Bemidji, she served as Sanford Bemidji’s vice president of operations, helping open that region’s first crisis center, featuring an inpatient psychiatry unit and an innovative Emergency Psychiatric Assessment Treatment and Healing (EmPATH) unit to provide 24/7 crisis services close to home for children, families and adults. As vice president, she also oversaw COVID-19 operations during the pandemic as well as expansions of the intensive care unit and services in the Park Rapids area.

Eischens began her tenure within Sanford Health’s pharmacy department in Bemidji as a pharmacist and later the director of pharmacy. As director, she oversaw the development of the home infusion pharmacy within the Joe Lueken Cancer Center, the opening of the Sanford Blackduck Pharmacy and the expansion of the regional 340B drug pricing program enabling Sanford Health to reach more patients in need. Eischens was promoted to executive director of operations in 2019 where she oversaw multiple service lines and facilities, including women’s, children’s, pharmacy and the Joe Lueken Cancer Center.

Prior to Sanford Health, Eischens began her career in health care working at the Veteran’s Administration Center. After earning her Bachelor of Science in pharmacy from the University of Minnesota, she worked in several positions in retail, infusion and inpatient pharmacy as well as operations management for Progressive Health Care.