Susquehanna Health recently recognized more than 20 service partners and two employee teams with five unique awards during the third annual Celebration of Excellence awards ceremony.
The program, held at Williamsport Regional Medical Center, honored employees for excellent performance in the areas of quality, patient safety, efficiency, service and patient experience.
Medical center CEO Neil Armstrong provided opening remarks and an overview of the awards.
Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer Sue Duchman presented the Superior Patient Experience Award to Dr. John Burks, the medical center emergency department, ICU/CCU teams and pre-hospital services for their efforts in saving a young man's life. Tim Shumbat accepted the award on the group's behalf.
Don Wilver, director of employment services, along with Chris Ballard, vice president of human resources, presented the 2011 CARE Employee Service Partners Awards for outstanding contributions to service excellence. The award is presented to employee service partners who regularly demonstrate behaviors that reflect Susquehanna Health's mission, vision, values and True North statements.
This year's winners include:
Margaret Carpenter, registered nurse, Emergency Department, Muncy Valley Hospital;
Frances Coppadge, registered nurse and office nurse, OB/GYN, Susquehanna Health Medical Group;
Stephanie Russell, catering hostess, Nutrition Care, medical center; and
Candy Dewar, administrative director of quality and safety, presented awards for patient safety to:
Cynthia Anderson, registered nurse, Emergency Department, medical center;
Joan Cioffi, surgical technician, Susquehanna Health Medical Group.
Dewar also presented Chairman's Quality Awards to Ben Stanis, Clinton Bowersox, Kimberly Forne, Mary Jo Sluhocki and Brooke Tillotson, of the Williamsport Regional Medical Center Pharmacy, for enhancing medication delivery with the use of robotics.
The John C. Lundy Efficiency Award was presented by Tim Schoener, on behalf of Lundy, to recognize employee service partners who suggested ideas for improvement and create efficiencies through the STAR (Saving Resources, Improving Timeliness and Efficiency, Adding Revenue, Reducing Cost) employee suggestion program.
Recipients of this year's awards include:
Krista Titman, MRI technologist, Imaging Services, medical group, and
Lundy attended the event and congratulated the winners after the presentation.
In his closing remarks, President and CEO Steve Johnson encouraged attendees that while facing an extraordinary period of change in the healthcare industry, "the most important element of how we manage this process is our continued focus on our patients."
"During a time when situations and circumstances are most challenging, it is more important to be centered, more important to be properly focused than when things are going well," he said. "I implore all of you that whatever it is we do and wherever it is we go in our future here at Susquehanna Health, that we do it with the patient-centered, family-focused enthusiasm that is absolutely second-to-none."
