An Evening with Our Stars:
2009 Excellence for Life Awards Program

October 28, 2009

Hundreds of employees, their family members, Network leaders and physicians came together on October 28 to recognize and honor many Kettering Health Network employees for a variety of achievements – milestone years of service, community service work, high-achieving teamwork, nursing excellence, heroic and legendary acts of kindness, and more.
The evening´s emphasis was on the stars who make the Network shine and who have helped the Network "Excellence for Life" initiative take hold and become so prominent in our daily work. Excellence for Life is about creating a more satisfying experience for patients and their families and at the same time, a more fulfilling, enjoyable work environment for our team.

View photos of the Excellence for Life event.

Awards and recognition are summarized here – click on the links below to find specific awards quickly.

45, 40, 35, 30, 25 and 20-Year Service Recognition
High Achieving Teams
Heroes & Legends
Community Service
Presidents´ Awards
Cameos of Caring

High-Achieving People Equal Outstanding Team Work!
High-Achieving Team Awards recognize employees and doctors for their values-based, high-performance behaviors on team projects that improve performance, reduce costs or advance goals.

Network Teams

UltiPro HR/Payroll Implementation Team
This team was dedicated to finding the best new technology for the Network´s needs. Their search resulted in the selection of UltiPro, a system to benefit every employee in the network. UltiPro went "live" in late December of 2008, with the first paychecks using the new system issued in January of 2009. The system also provides HR and Payroll with better work tools, gives employees easier access to payroll documents, improves the application tracking and hiring process, and eliminates paperwork – in support of our Green Initiative.

Reducing Health Care Associated Infections through Safety Surveillor Team
Two individual groups – the Urinary Tract Infection Process Improvement Team and the Safety Surveillor Team – make up this team. As a result of their combined efforts, the time needed to screen large volumes of laboratory culture results has decreased. Their work means more efficient surveillance of our patients, fewer health care-associated infections, and the most important benefit of all – improved patient care.

Kettering Medical Center Teams

Central Processing Lean Team
Central Processing formed a team to better meet the expectations of their customers – namely surgeons, surgery staff and delivery room staff. The team developed a process for consistent customer service, reduced total cost of supplies, and improved productivity. Most importantly the department´s "customers" received their necessary instruments and supplies in a timely manner, so they could provide quality patient care. Overall, productivity improved 20 percent and throughput time decreased by 50 percent.

Emergency Department Unit-Based Shared Governance Team
This team set out to create an Emergency Department Unit Council. A Council with a shared governance structure has a tremendous impact on all stakeholders – patients, co-workers, hospital leadership, and the future development of the Emergency Department. The team´s efforts brought several significant outcomes including decreasing wait times for "door to doc" on EMS patients from 30 to 18 minutes and improving Press Ganey scores substantially – overall satisfaction numbers jumped from 56 to 91!

Grandview Medical Center Teams

Stroke Center Performance Monitoring Team
The Stroke Center Performance Monitoring team was formed for many reasons, among them to prepare for the recertification process. But this cross-functional group set goals and accomplished much more than completing a survey. They dramatically expanded stroke education processes within Grandview and the community at large, achieved high success rates in decreasing the time for CT scan performance and interpretation, as well as decreasing speech language pathologist response times. Additionally, Grandview Medical Center received a five-star rating in Stroke Care from HealthGrades for the sixth year in a row.

Length of Stay Initiative Team
In the summer of 2008, average length of stay at Grandview Medical Center was 4.61 days instead of the targeted 4.04 days – with each tenth of a point representing $400,000 in additional expenses. This team came together to review internal processes, identify roadblocks to discharge, and improve patient care. With their efforts, length of stay decreased to 4.25 days – a savings of more than one million dollars in direct nursing costs alone. The biggest win, though, is improved communication between departments, which leads to better patient care.

Medication Reconciliation Team
This team formed to provide more accurate and timely medication reconciliation for patients being transferred or discharged. They created a pilot program in the Southview Medical/Surgical Unit, working with staff and physicians, providing one-on-one education and monitoring all patient charts for medication discharge information. The program worked very well, with the unit at 100 percent compliance in medication reconciliation for months at a time. The lessons learned have been implemented at Grandview as well, and the team continues to work toward 100 percent compliance at both facilities.

Greene Memorial Hospital Teams

Financial Turnaround Team
Greene Memorial Hospital had been delivering a negative operating margin in 2007 and 2008. With a target of three percent margin, the Financial Turnaround Team set out to improve margins to provide a win-win-win situation: better patient care, higher staff productivity, and more cooperation from physicians through standardized supply plans and staffing changes. Their changes were implemented in the fourth quarter of 2008, and through July of 2009, the Greene Memorial Hospital operating margin has improved by 3.7 million dollars, compared to the previous year.

View photos of the High Achieving Teams.

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Heroes & Legends ... Going Above and Beyond
While the Star Search program allows us to identify and recognize our co-workers as employees of the month for outstanding performance, the Heroes and Legends program brings attention to those who go above and beyond to make a difference in someone´s life.

Joe Hill, Grandview Medical Center
Joe Hill works in Environmental Services. Many of his department colleagues have transportation issues, and the bus schedule doesn´t always match their work schedules. Joe gladly pitches in, picking up co-workers and taking them home when needed – even on his days off. He never asks for gas money, and he never fails to greet each employee and patient with a smile and a kind word.

Stacy Caron, Southview Medical Center
Stacy works in Maternity at Southview Medical Center. She is involved in "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep," a program that does photography for fetal demises. Families have detailed for us how Stacy has come in on her day off, unpaid, to create beautiful memorial slideshows for parents who have lost a baby. The families and the nursing staff are very appreciative and grateful.

Sharon Kershner, Kettering Medical Center
As a breast cancer care coordinator, Sharon has helped thousands of breast cancer survivors and their families by creating a support group called SOAR – which stands for Strength, Optimism and Recovery. We have received numerous letters thanking her for her efforts.

Cindy Spradlin, Greene Memorial Hospital
Cindy works in the hospital´s Cancer Center. She organized the center staff to adopt a group of soldiers in Afghanistan. While the soldiers sleep under their vehicles and suffer daytime temperatures of 130 degrees, Cindy´s team has been collecting food, personal items, comfort items and toys that the soldiers can give to the children they encounter on their patrols.

View photos of the Heroes & Legends.

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Putting Others First:
Community Service Award Winners
Congratulations to these deserving recipients of the 2009 Community Service Awards.

Amanda Davidson
Amanda Davidson devotes countless volunteer hours to Stillwater Seventh-day Adventist Church. She served as a tour guide during the World Vision AIDS Awareness program and helps with the Parents Day Out program each Christmas. She also spent seven days on a Mission trip to Jamaica to build a house for a family of 10. Amanda, who works at Sycamore in Social Services, is also active as a volunteer at various Good Neighbor House programs.

DO-WOP (Kelly Fackel, Janie Ferrell, Lynn Wright, Dr. Connie McCarroll)
DO-WOP (Diabetes and Obesity – Wellness Opportunities Program) is an intervention program for obese children and those at risk for diabetes. Dr. Connie McCarroll, a pediatrician at the Cassano Health Center, developed the concept. Kelly Fackel and Janie Ferrell of the Grandview Foundation helped obtain grants, while Lynne Wright of the Cassano Health Center serves as nurse coordinator. Under their leadership, DO-WOP has become very successful at teaching youngsters and their families how to make life changing choices of exercising and eating healthy foods.

Karen Henz
Karen Henz, a nurse in the Cardiac Care Unit at Kettering Medical Center, is a volunteer in the Honor Flights program, which flies World War II veterans to Washington, DC. Karen has escorted several groups of veterans to the nation´s capital, providing nursing care and making sure that every veteran has a safe and memorable trip.

Jennifer Mellen
Jennifer Mellen works in Medical Records at Kettering Medical Center. She helped create a program called "LifeRaft." For the past three years, Jennifer and her group have collected school supplies, library books, emergency provisions, school uniforms and cash for the hurricane-devastated areas along the Gulf Coast, including Jennifer´s former hometown.

Joan Ulloth
Joan Ulloth, a Nursing instructor at the Kettering College of Medical Arts, knows that keeping your head warm is important to good health. She makes more than 500 hats each year for Head Start, "The Other Place," the Good Neighbor House and for patients on 3 South at Kettering Medical Center. She also directs three hand bell choirs at the Kettering Adventist Church.

View photos of the Community Service Award Winners.

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The Presidents´ Awards
The presidents of each medical center choose one employee to especially recognize for best exemplifying customer service.

Stephanie Greene, Greene Memorial Hospital
Stephanie Greene has served the past three years as a registered nurse on the Greene Memorial Hospital Telemetry Unit.

Her dedication to providing outstanding patient care is exemplary. One patient who has been on Stephanie´s unit several times makes it a point to send thank you cards for the excellent care she receives. Another time, she was caring for a patient with syncope, and took great pains one night to talk with the patient and his family about his condition. She answered every question before leaving her shift.

Unfortunately, despite the efforts of the night shift staff, the patient passed away during the overnight hours. But the family made sure to call Stephanie, thanking her for all she had done to make him comfortable and keep them informed. Stephanie Greene reminds us that creating lasting, caring experiences for our patients can have a powerful impact.

Raul Concha, Sycamore Medical Center
Raul Concha, chaplain at Sycamore Medical Center, lost a colleague when Julie Bowen Garrison, a nurse at Sycamore, was killed in an auto accident after leaving work. But Raul had a mission to perform – because Julie´s sister, Suzan Doan, is also a Sycamore nurse.

So Raul came to Suzan´s home to comfort her, her parents, and the rest of the family. He willingly conducted the funeral service for Julie. And he supported all the nurses on the unit as they struggled to cope with the loss – which was his loss too.

Alyssa Stec, Kettering Medical Center
Alyssa Stec, a CTCU nurse at Kettering Medical Center, provided care to Lisa Pilla who had been at Kettering a month earlier, and had received a diagnosis of terminal cancer. In Lisa´s words, "Alyssa is the one who stood by my side when I had my first PET scan, when I had CT scans and X-rays of every body part, and when I had every test under the sun. She held my hand during all those tests, reassuring me that everything would be okay. Alyssa came to the hospital on her day off, arranged child care for her own little boy so she could take care of me. She is an amazing nurse."

Carrie Wolfe, Southview Medical Center
During the blizzard of 2008, a woman was receiving outpatient treatment on that day and driving conditions, bad enough during her trip to the hospital, were getting worse by the minute. The woman learned that her son´s school was closing early, but she had no way of leaving the hospital to pick him up. Carrie Wolfe, a Southview nurse, stepped in. She brought the unit´s cordless phone to the patient´s room, so she could contact her son and arrange a ride home for him. Then Carrie went online to make sure the road conditions wouldn´t affect the patient´s route home. The woman wrote to us praising the fact that Carrie showed calm and caring during a stressful situation.

Anthony Hibbitt, Grandview Medical Center
Anthony Hibbitt of Environmental Services is a familiar face in Grandview's Acute Care Unit waiting room, where patients and families spend many long days and nights. He is well known for providing spiritual conversation, prayers and morning coffee and newspapers to anxious family members.Nurses noticed that Anthony was on a first-name basis with families of ICU patients, and often brings coffee and offers compassion to them. Anthony wows our customers and because of him, Grandview becomes the hospital of choice for countless patient families.

View photos of the Presidents' Award winners.

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Cameos Of Caring
Cameos of Caring is a Wright State University School of Nursing program that gives nurses a way to be recognized by their peers as dedicated leaders in their profession. In May, 43 Cameos of Caring nominees were recognized at a separate awards ceremony, and five winners were chosen.

Patty Kopp, Grandview Medical Center
Patty Kopp has an extensive history in providing outstanding leadership in the Grandview Post Acute Care Unit, both as a patient care provider and as an experienced staff member who oversees the daily management of the unit. She brings over 40 years of experience and knowledge to her job and she displays the utmost integrity, never compromising patient safety or standards of excellence.

Faye Mudd, Southview Medical Center
Faye Mudd works in the Short Stay Unit at Southview Medical Center, and has excellent nursing skills. She is also making a major difference in the operational aspects of her job. Faye is the preceptor for nursing students and new employees. Her teaching degree is a valuable asset in this aspect of her job. She worked on the Press Ganey Improvement project at Southview, which showed a very positive result. She also worked closely with Medical Records to insure that call backs can be made on a daily basis.

Deanna DelValle, Greene Memorial Hospital
Deanna Delvalle has served as a registered nurse in Greene´s Intensive Care Unit since 2002. She is family based in her nursing approach, making sure that both patient and family are being cared for. Her demeanor and thorough patient care convey a sentiment of relaxation, so families can be confident that their loved ones are receiving quality care in a time of helplessness and uncertainty.

Barbara Lauderback, Kettering Medical Center
In her work at Kettering´s Emergency Department, Barb Lauderback often serves as the acting charge nurse. She attends charge nurse staff meetings and has participated in offsite leadership development programs. Barb is also one of the best mentors in the department, whether she is updating veteran staff on new procedures or precepting new nursing graduates.

Pamela Marion, Kettering Behavioral Medicine Center
Pam Marion is a relatively new nurse and has willingly and passionately volunteered for every new project started at Kettering Behavioral Medicine Center.

When changes and consolidation of functions took place in that group, a period of transition occurred. It´s because of people like Pam, with their positive attitude, that the transition was made successfully. And she is currently volunteering her time to do depression screenings at Kettering and Sycamore in partnership with the Community Wellness Department.

View photos of the Cameos of Caring winners.

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