Celebrate Our March Employees of the Month
People, Stars

Celebrate Our March Employees of the Month

Read Time: 11 mins

The Employee of the Month Award recognizes the people you love to work with. These winners show exhibit Kettering Health’s Standards of Behavior, live out our values, and demonstrate the healing presence practices outlined in Called to Care.

You can read the nomination stories and view the pictures of the March Employees of the Month below. Congratulations to all of our recipients!

Pamela Wilson – Occupational Therapy, Kettering College

“I have been Pam’s co-worker for over five years, and I have never seen her give less than 100% in all her roles in our department. Her passion for her job is evident every day. During these past few years with the pandemic, Pam made sure our department had the necessary cleaning supplies in multiple areas so that the faculty, staff, and students could easily keep areas clean and sanitized. She also goes the extra mile by supplying, with her own money, small decorative items in our lounges and other areas that make our department welcoming and aesthetically pleasing. I work closely with Pam as the other support staff in our department and she is always willing to help me with anything I need assistance with. Our department, our students, the college, and Kettering Health are lucky to have such a polished, professional, devoted employee.”

Corbin Calvert – Acute Adult Unit, Kettering Health Behavioral Medical Center

“Corbin is a wonderful addition to our team. He always thinks of his team first and is an encouragement to those around him. He brought in dozens of cookies for staff during Christmas, and bought pizza, soda, and dessert during a stressful shift to increase morale. He is so thoughtful and encouraging.

Also, Corbin’s previous mental health experience has been an asset to our team. He readily engages his patients and offers support and encouragement. He is very thoughtful and considerate of both patients and staff. Corbin is a great morale booster for staff.”

Alyssa Farmer – Respiratory Care, Kettering Health Dayton

“Alyssa was the respiratory therapist on the COVID-19 unit when I needed one of her patients in dialysis. I called her and told her I was ready for the patient, and I would be down shortly.  I got tied up with another patient, and Alyssa brought the patient and the heated high-flow oxygen up without me because of my delay. Then, when the patient was done, she recruited another co-worker to help her with the transport back, freeing me up to work with our other patients—she did this because she saw the need and filled it to give our patient the best of care. Alyssa was alert to the situation.  She came up with an innovative solution, and she was proactive on the patient’s needs to return to the unit. She showed teamwork and compassion to us, her co-workers, as well as to the patient. As a result, the patient and the staff were cared for in the same action. It’s not just the action, but the gracious demeanor of Alyssa that soothed us on a bad day. I am very thankful for Alyssa and her sunny, ‘can do’ attitude!”

Sherri Bailey – Physical Therapy, Kettering Health Greene Memorial

“I have the pleasure of working with Sherri in both the outpatient and inpatient side of physical therapy. She is very caring and compassionate. She takes her time with her patients, and takes the time to answer all her patient’s questions. I frequently see her carrying around the model of the spine because she takes time to provide visual education while evaluating her patient and deciding the best plan of treatment. She is usually the last one to leave at night having provided thorough patient care all day. She takes the extra time to review prior history, doctor’s notes, and imaging reports to see the complete picture and treat the whole patient. Seeing Sherri in action gives me a good role model to pattern after. She sets a great example making me want to provide the best patient care I can provide. I remember Sherri and I working late on a Friday together. She had multiple patients to document on before ending her shift. I was puzzled how to further assist the patient I was treating. I asked if she could look at the patient with me and provide suggestions. Sherri spent the next 15-20 minutes with me and the patient providing a new perspective and new exercises to try. Not once did Sherri focus on how much later helping us would make her work. She selflessly stepped up to help and put a patient and her co-worker first. A+ job as always, Sherri.”

Rachael Baker – Nutrition Services, Kettering Health Hamilton

“Rachael has a heart of gold. She does everything in her power to help our department run smoothly.  She will step into any and, sometimes, all the positions to make this department great. She has such a calmness about herself that is so reassuring in some very hectic times. I have literally witnessed her contribute to every aspect of this department in the same day. As a supervisor, she has a very heavy workload already, but she always puts her employees’ workloads before her own. There are so many impressive aspects of Rachael’s work habits, but I think I am most impressed by her compassion for her fellow employees. We are expected to show compassion to our patients but her compassion for all her employees is what I love the most. She never shows the true pressure she is under in a tough situation and she will always be your biggest cheerleader! Just a few weeks ago when we got to work in the morning the hospital did not have internet which means we did not have access to any of our reports or anything we needed to get this kitchen operating. She quickly went into problem-solving mode and regrouped this entire department to get us moving in the right direction. The entire time she had a smile on her face and was hopping in wherever she was needed.  I have also witnessed her picking up and dropping off employees who may need a ride to work also. She never lets anyone in this department feel as if one job is more important than another. She works every day to make sure every employee is treated with respect and knows their worth to this department. Rachael is an extremely hard worker, has a humongous heart, and amazing leadership skills!”

Phyllis McDowell – Culinary, Kettering Health Main Campus

“Phyllis is everything you want in a high performer—always on time, never missing work, picks up extra shifts when needed, consistently working, producing quality products, and communicates issues she sees. I can go on and on about her work ethic, but it is what Phyllis does outside of work that makes her special. Phyllis will coordinate dinners at local restaurants with her co-workers, which is a great team-builder. However, Phyllis takes it to the next level and reaches out to past employees that have retired from our department and invites them to these gatherings as well. Phyllis is always looking out for others.

“Recently, I was having lunch in the cafeteria. At a nearby table there were several Nutrition Services employees enjoying their meal. I observed a female walk by their table, then stop and address Phyllis. She was a patient’s wife and mentioned that she recognized Phyllis as the employee who had recently paid for her lunch. She said her husband had just been brought into Kettering Health Main Campus and it was not a good day. She was upset and said that Phyllis, although working, took the time to talk to her and then anonymously purchased her meal. She said, ‘You will never know how much that meant to me.’ What a wonderful, generous gesture from one of our employees. Bravo, Phyllis!”

Jennifer Maley – Wound, Kettering Health Miamisburg

“Jennifer works with our wound and hyperbaric patients. No matter the day or what Jennifer is faced with she always has a smile and kind words for our patients. She makes appointments bearable for those undergoing treatment. Jennifer also provides orientation for our new employees and yearly education for our staff. We are blessed to have her on our team.”

Rhyanna Hallauer – Sterile Processing, Kettering Health Troy

“It doesn’t matter what day of the week it is, how many hours she’s already worked, or what needs to be done, Rhyanna is always willing to come in and put in the extra work every day. Rhyanna comes in on the weekends and does anything she can to make all patient outcomes are positive ones. She ensures every co-worker, surgeon, or patient has everything they need to have a successful day. Along with working on her own extra projects, she continues to help our surgery department co-workers with their projects. Rhyanna is the example of above and beyond every single day. Rhyanna’s positive attitude and willingness to help anyone and everyone make her someone my entire department looks forward to working with every day. She is a hard-working, goal-smashing co-worker we are blessed to have. Rhyanna takes on a lot of work to ensure we successful without hesitation.”

Kathryn Boyd – First Steps Lactation Clinic, Kettering Health Washington Township

“Katy is an awesome asset to First Steps Lactation Clinic. The clients love her, and she supports and actively works in collaboration with the other members of the client’s health care team. I work as a Help Me Grow nurse and Katy consistently delivers great care to my mothers and works together to ensure that a workable and cohesive plan is formulated. She rocks.”

Amy Whitehurst – IS Administration, Kettering Network Services

“Amy continuously goes above and beyond expectations to ensure the most safe and efficient patient care through the Epic build she is responsible for. The most recent example is the COVID outpatient therapy referral, not only is a referral not something someone on the IS pharmacy team typically builds, but she also built the referral with innovative features that drive prescribers to the most appropriate therapy. Both pharmacy and physician leadership praised the innovative design. Through the build she does in Epic, Amy ensures our patients are safe and provider interaction with Epic is as easy as possible. With the new oral COVID medications, drug information wasn’t available from our data vendor. So, to ensure patient safety, Amy built complex systems in Epic to ensure providers were warned if there was a potentially unsafe combination of medications.”

Sarah Bingham – Primary Care – New Lebanon, Kettering Physician Network

“We had an 83-year-old patient call, crying, stating she couldn’t walk to her bathroom without being severely short of breath. I advised her to call 911 and she said she would not go to the hospital because her nightgown was dirty, and she didn’t have the strength to change it. Also, her husband is very hard of hearing and wouldn’t hear the door when the paramedics arrived. I asked if she would like us to come over and alert her husband and change her clothes and she agreed. Sarah and I drove to her house and Sarah changed her, cleaned her up a bit, fixed her hair, and comforted her before the ambulance came. The patient was so relieved that Sarah was there. The paramedic stated that the patient would not have made it through the night. Her oxygen was in the high 70’s [should be 95 or higher]. Sarah’s compassion and care made a huge difference to this patient and her family. We are lucky to have her on our team.”

Julie Stevenson – Family Birthplace, Soin Medical Center

“She went above and beyond her duties. She approached me and offered to help collect blood on a day when I was alone and struggling. She could have kept quiet and saved herself the extra tasks, but she didn’t. I was the only phlebotomist for all of Soin. I was ten hours into a twelve-hour shift without any co-workers to share the burden. Her generous offer to help lit up the end of my shift and renewed my optimism. My faith was restored by her offering to share my tasks.

“She came downstairs and helped phlebotomy draw blood which helped them get more draws done and more patients assessed for lab work. Her work positively helped with the internal draws. She was amazing. Instead of staying on her floor she lived out the mission of Kettering Health and saw a need and reacted. Thanks a million, from the lab.”

March 17, 2022
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