The Employee of the Month award recognizes individuals who exemplify our Kettering Health Network values in their daily work. We are giving a special focus to this award by recognizing individuals who have demonstrated our values specifically in the context of COVID-19. How we celebrate these award winners will be different in light of social distancing.
You can read the nomination stories and see the photos of the July Employees of the Month below. Congratulations to all of our recipients!
Jathan Merkel – KPP, ASB
“With the COVID-19 pandemic, Population Health reporting priorities shifted so quickly. Requirements changed periodically and deadlines became urgent. Still, throughout this entire process Jathan has been quick to share his knowledge, has been patient, and has worked extremely hard to get a visually appealing, informative, and powerful Access dashboard to our stakeholders. I am so glad I am a part of this team and am so appreciative of having Jathan as a mentor! Jathan’s patience, willingness to share knowledge, and eagerness to give credit to other people’s efforts make our Population Health team very productive.”
Dan Johnson – Volunteer Services, FHH
“Dan has lived our mission during the last couple months with displaying a positive attitude and wonderful customer service during such a difficult time. Dan has regularly taken over 100 customer calls a day, helped guide and watch over the screeners when they did not know where to send patients or visitors, and has been flexible with his work hours with the volunteers being restricted from the hospital. Dan has also showed empathy and compassion to the volunteers who call in because they are depressed and struggling with being lonely. Dan has a smile on his face and is ready to greet our staff, physicians, volunteers, and most importantly the patients and visitors when they come to the main desk. Our patients know him by first name and are always happy to see him when they come in for treatments. Dan is a wonderful asset to us here at Fort Hamilton Hospital.”
Emily Snavely – Emergency & Ambulance Services, GMH
“Emily has adjusted her schedule to meet the needs of the department due to furloughs, vacations, and the need to train as a resource charge nurse. She continues to keep an upbeat spirit during this strenuous time and is a catalyst to maintaining great relationships with our patients. Emily is a great employee, and to step up during this time to allow other employees the ability to keep vacation or to stay on furlough, is very helpful to this very small department.”
Craige DeVaughn II – Patient Transportation, GV
“Craige has helped his employees fill out the unemployment forms, COVID relief forms, and he has TSA’ed himself so that his employees could work. Craige never complained, never missed an assignment, meeting, email, or phone call. He never stopped making sure his employees, or myself, had what we needed. I could not have asked for a better leader. Anyone can shine when everything is going well, but what can you say about your leaders when things are not going well? Thank you Craige for being a great leader during a very critical, and unforeseen time. Your actions during this time shows what a great leader you truly are.”
Christina Eigel – Adult IOP, KBMC
“Chrissy is an employee willing to always go above and beyond for coworkers and patients. During times of uncertainty, Chrissy spends ample time with each patient to ensure they feel comfortable and welcomed into the IOP program. Chrissy also dedicates a tremendous amount of each day talking with staff to support their needs to ensure a quality patient experience. Chrissy not only lives the mission of KHN but exemplifies it daily by continuing to be a team player, supporting patients in times of crisis, being flexible to ensure patient needs are exceeded, and models a servant heart daily in her work. Chrissy is truly an asset to this organization and to IOP.”
Cynthia Partain – Inpatient Pharmacy, KMC
“Cindy is always willing to work extra to get a project completed and she’ll even go to another facility to work if necessary. The COVID-19 unit at Grandview was eliminated recently, but shortly afterwards they had to re-open it within 24 hours. Cindy left Kettering to go to Grandview to reload all of the drugs into the Omnicell for that unit, which is very time consuming. Everyone that knows her is thankful of her friendliness and ready to do whatever it takes to get it done! Cindy was also nice enough to loan her knee scooter to my daughter to recover from a fall. Her generosity extends outside of her work environment too!”
Amanda George – Care Management, KPN
“Recently, I took a phone call from a patient’s son. The patient had recently passed away and he wished to express to Amanda how much her time and care meant to him earlier this year. He expressed that if he were old enough then he would become a patient here because everyone worked so well together. Without Amanda, he would have had no clue of where to begin in getting her placed in a facility here as he was was not from Dayton. Amanda is consistent in how she handles the patients and families. She welcomes anyone’s questions and provides us with the knowledge of how to help our patients. Her kindness towards everyone is something we all should strive to provide everyone.”
Jana Hendershot – Clinical Informatics, Prestige
“Every month at our staff meeting, in addition to her normal duties, Jana highlights a Clinical Informatics employee by revealing attributes that have been contributed by others on the team. Every person receives a gift of their favorite treat and a pin that says, ‘I’m kind of a big deal!’. By doing this we learn more about our co-workers and develop a deeper bond within our team. We all look forward to this big reveal! Jana exemplifies what you want from an employee. She works hard and she cares about her team. She lives the mission by giving of her talents to let us appreciate the talents and contributions of all our team members.”
April Dunn – Cardiac Pulmonary, SMC
“It was an extra tough day on the COVID unit recently. We faced less staff than the day before with the same number of patients. We were drowning most of the shift and struggling to get help. April was not asked to help but she just jumped in and answered non-stop phone calls, took patients to the restroom, set up patients for their meals, helped with turns and clean ups of patients, and was a runner for equipment/meds/ dressings. She became whatever we needed to try to survive the shift with everyone alive. She kept our mental health intact and helped to keep patients alive.”
Stephen Couch – Transportation, Soin
“Stephen goes above and beyond standard duties. He is always friendly and approachable, uses closed-loop communication, and has a great rapport with his patient and fellow staff. Personally, we never have to wait for our patients to be transported to or from the unit, as Stephen is always present within two minutes of a transportation request. Stephen is a positive influence on fellow staff and patients and always works with a smile on his face. He never complains about anything and is happy to help fellow employees any way that he can. Stephen is truly a pleasure to work with.”
Erin Sweeney – Assisted Living, Sr. Division
“Erin frequently receives Shooting Stars for her teamwork such as: ‘She helps me whenever I ask. She is a great team player!’, and ‘Erin has been an outstanding coworker when it comes to helping all departments within our facility’. She made a particular resident so happy, when many others were unsuccessful. She shared with me many details regarding the special steps of care she takes to help this resident with their daily needs. All the little things she does adds up to creating a great experience.”
Jessica Durham – Maternity, SV
“Jessica has been an amazing employee and especially this month. We have had some tough patients these past few weeks who have experienced extreme losses. Jessica has volunteered every shift to take the patient. She has been extremely compassionate and excelled with her nursing skills. Jessica has been exactly what the patients have needed going through devastating losses. She has cried tears holding her patient all the while holding it together to be strong for the mother and her family. She has been incredible and lived the whole Kettering mission through her daily work here.”
Leshawn Motley – Environmental Services, Troy
“Leshawn is one of the nicest people I have come across. He treats his staff with the upmost respect and is willing to help with anything and everything. Once, we were speaking and I mentioned how I liked Snickers bars as continued to talk 10 minutes. Shortly after he went back to work, he brought myself a Snickers bar and my coworker a Twix bar. I know that is small, but what he does for this hospital is amazing. Anytime we need something cleaned or picked up, he is taking care of it. He never has a frown on his face and he does what he can to make others smile.”
Do you know someone who is a Network Star? Help us honor them by telling their story in the Network Stars form, located in the MyHR portal.