KHS Chief Executive Officer Bio

Carol Sorrell, RN
Chief Executive Officer

Carol Sorrell is the Chief Executive Officer for Kern Health Systems.

Carol began her career with KHS in 1994 as the Chief Operating Officer. Her first responsibility was to complete the necessary requirements to obtain a Knox-Keene license which would allow KHS to contract with the State of California to provide Medi-Cal managed care services. Carol was promoted to Chief Executive Officer in January 1996 and, working along with a very small staff, the necessary requirements were completed to become a licensed health plan in June 1996.

Carol is on the Board of Directors of Local Health Plans of California, a statewide association of seven locally managed non-profit health plans. Carol is a Registered Nurse. She graduated from California State University Dominguez Hills with a Bachelors of Science in 1990 after obtaining her R.N. degree from Bakersfield College in 1980. She began her nursing career working in the emergency room at Kern Medical Center, the County owned hospital. She moved on to management roles in the Utilization Review and case management areas of the hospital. She subsequently joined Kaiser Permanente in Bakersfield to assist with start-up operations of Kaiser in Bakersfield. She was with Kaiser for 7 years as the Director of the Utilization Review and Quality Assurance programs before joining Kern Health Systems.