Dr. Sy has served as chief nursing executive for Keck Medical Center of USC since 2012, leading all inpatient and outpatient nursing services across Keck Hospital of USC and USC Norris Cancer Hospital. She oversees approximately 1,300 nurses and is accountable for nursing competency, clinical quality standards, patient experience and survey readiness across both hospitals and their outpatient clinic network. Dr. Sy led Keck Hospital to its first American Nurses Credentialing Center Magnet recognition and helped secure redesignation in 2023, reinforcing a sustained culture of nursing excellence. She also developed and launched Keck Medicine’s nursing institute to advance education, leadership development, clinical expertise and research for approximately 4,000 nurses across four hospitals and more than 100 clinic locations. A key differentiator of her leadership is the nursing professionalism program she created in partnership with the Nashville, Tenn.-based Vanderbilt University Center for Patient and Professional Advocacy, including training roughly 200 nurse “peer messengers” and contributing to work published in the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety. Dr. Sy established a clinical ladder program to recognize bedside expertise and strengthen retention, while also chairing major committees including patient identification error reduction and policy, and co-chairing throughput. Under her tenure, Keck Hospital has also earned high-profile quality recognition, including top specialty rankings, Vizient top-performer recognition, a CMS 5-star rating and repeated Leapfrog “A” safety grades.
