Staff who exceed expectations in the workplace

Recognition of achievements in customer service, innovative ideas, going above and beyond and creating synergy in the work place.
 

Recognition for 
2014

Workplace Recognition – Exceeding expectations, ideas that improve the workplace, stepping up and out of the everyday, promoting teamwork and improving morale – are represented by the accomplishments of the following staff:

January

Above and Beyond

Joan Debusscher, Cheryl McGonigle, Stephanie Sheldon and Dawn Webb

Blood Bank

When both of the slow rate freezers were down, Joan, Cheryl, Stephanie and Dawn worked as a team and made a plan organizing repair and scheduling of stem cell freezing runs as well as contracting another facility to act as a back up in order to get hard to replace stem cell collections frozen. It took late night hours, patience and problem solving.

Customer Service

Sally Smith, Histology

Sally has been an asset to the Histology Lab from the first day she walked in. She has great problem solving skills and is always willing to try something new. She has assisted in developing many workarounds for problems that Soft created between transcription and the back counter. And she always does so with a smile. She is a pleasure to work with every day. 

February

Above and Beyond

Stephanie Hillman, Microbiology

Stephanie displays a diligent pursuit of excellence in regards to patient care. One afternoon a tech from hematology came to microbiology looking to consult with a mycology tech on a particular case. Since there is no mycology coverage on the afternoon shift and Stephanie has a unique background from Mayo clinic as a mycology tech she was able to read the fungal smear and with direction from the senior tech notified the doctor of her findings. This normally would not have been resulted until the following day at around 3:00. Stephanie has been valuable as the go-to person for all fungal related questions. She is a highly valued asset to our team. 

Customer Service

Stephen Marshall, Pathology Informatics

Since the implementation of MiChart, the Canton Health Center has had a problem with lab test labels not printing in the infusion area, dispite numerous attempts to correct the problem by the employees. After contacting PDS and talking to Steve, within the week the problem was solved. That has emliminated a great deal of extra work cancelling duplicate orders, relabeling and dealing with paper requisitions. We want Steve to know how much we appreciate his effort on our behalf. 

Creating Synergy

Michele McGee, Microbiology 

First thing in the morning  Michele enters the lab with a greeting and asking everyone how they are doing. She often breaks into song during the day., sometimes targeting a particular person or task and they are frequently humerous and always sweet.  At 2:00 in the afternoon she calls everyone together for stretches which always end in laughter. She helps to make the day go faster and brightens the room when she enters. 

March

Above and Beyond

Karen Machcinski

Customer Service:

Lakeia French and Michelle Keener

April

Above and Beyond

Katie Hayes, Anatomic Pathology

Katie is receiving this award for being so patient, smiling and efficient throughout the several days when her coworker was on vacation and she was working the surgical pathology desk alone. She handled every busy day with a smile and laughter. What a nice attitude.

Day to Day Recognition (Something to "Crow" About) - Encouraging supervisors and staff to recognize our employees for daily achievements that exceed set responsibilities:

May

Above and Beyond

Stephen Collins, Chemical Pathology

Stephen showed great attention to detail during his PM shift working in the Chemical Pathology Distribution area. He had received a urine specimen which looked odd to him. He then realized it had been collected in an incorrect tube. Upon further investigation it was discovered that a draw station had been accidently using the wrong tubes to collect urines for the entire day. Because of his attention to detail and knowlege of containers we were able to notify all the labs and rectify the issue before it went any further. Thanks for going above and beyond for the entire department.

June

Above and Beyond

Debra Sexton, Pathology Informatics

Debra has provided our department units excellent support in our Soft Path-Dx gross imaging capture project. Initially her support was to last only a few months after the SOFT go live implementation. After a year she has still been viligant in maintaining a complete SCC medical image database for our grossing work areas which supports our clinical mission. She has kept us up to date on the workflow variances encountered during the past year and is a major contributor to the success of the SOFT grossing imaging capture project. Her daily QA summaries were instrumental at identifying where adjustments to workflow and training were needed.

Customer Service

Lakeia French, M Labs

Lakeia received a very difficult telephone request that required her to coordinate communication between the director of our molecular diagnostics lab, Dr. Kojo Elenitoba-Johnson and the medical director of a hematopathology laboratory who is one of our clients. The matter required the directors to discuss a specimen of extracted DNA and the ability to maintain its viability in order to perform additional assays. Lakeia was able to calmly and professionally navigate their schedules while working with several members of their customer service team. She was able to keep all parties informed of the next steps, and made everything for management to analyze. This level of service excellence needs to be recognized.

August

Above and Beyond

Judith Nyhuis, Microbiology

Judith has spent many extra hours after work learning the electronic manual Master Control. She is always there to train, advise, share shortcuts, give suggestions and help everyone in the lab write and learn procedures. Her expertise and willingness to spend extra time with any co-worker who asks for help is invaluable.

September

Above and Beyond

Maribel Vasquez, Specimen Procurement

On September 11th Maribel was asked to step in as Chief Tech for the Phlebotomy team when 4 of our employees called in. She graciously accepted and did a phenomenal job. Not only did she have to work short staffed but she had to do her regular draws plus the added CT responsibilities. She voluntarily agreed to stay over 2 hours until the next shift supervisor came in. Maribels work was outstanding and very much appreciated by the management staff and myself. I commend her for a job well done.

Innovative Ideas

Michell Bensette, Blood Bank

Ortho Clinical Diagnostics began sending their products in new packaging that included foam padding. Michelle discovered that with two cuts, there would be additional padding for the pneumatic tubes reducing institutional costs for the purchase of the foam and reducing the amount of foam that would be sent to a landfill.

October

Above and Beyond

Linda Johnson, Coagulation

Acting as the technical consultant for the implementation of the ROTEM in the Cardiovascular Center, Linda reviewed the equipment validation requirements for limiting the daily required quality control to the use of an electronic control and determined it required 30 continuous days of documentation. She voluntarily came in on holidays and week-ends to perform this task. Her commitment to the laboratories, her professional approach to the problem and her concern for the best outcome for the patient and the individuals running the testing on a daily bases is commendable. Thank you Linda.

Creating Synergy

Lori Hufstedler, Anatomic Pathology

Lori works really hard to create teamwork with our small team of 8. She is our team cheerleader, encouraging everyone to step outside their "normal job" and do extra every day. Here is one of her messages to the team: "I feel it's not up to the pathologist, as they have lots of other stuff that keeps them busy, to recheck every number that is dictated, it's up to us to help them out as much as we can." Lori is an example of  'a little better every day'.

November

Above and Beyond

Chelsea Decker, Anatomic Pathology

Chelsea cut her finger pretty bad and after a trip to the ER came back to finish her shift. She even stayed late to help with grossing in Room 2. We would have been here all night had she not stayed over. Thanks so much for putting in the extra effort and being a team player.

Customer Service

Teresa Thomas, Point of Care

As I sat in the waiting room at EAA, I could hear Teresa talking to a doctor about blood draw orders on a patient. Teresa explained to the doctor (over and over again) what test had been ordered and how the outpatient lab would enter it in the computer. It was obvious the doctor was having trouble with MiChart entry and the patient's sister stood there supplying additional information. Teresa was thorough, polite, efficient, calm and was able to address the sister and doctor simultaneously.She also gave her name to the sister in case of future problems. She then helped the next patient who wanted a finger stick and had a order for a vein draw. She promptly made a phone call and got the correct order. Teresa is an employee who knows her work well. She is pleasant under trying circumstances and shows compassion to the doctors who are trying to get their orders filled and to the patien'ts  who have to be poked again. She is an assset to UMHS.

Creating Synergy

Theodore Clayton, Microbiology

Ted is an employee that is the perfect role model for our department. He is knowledgeable, works quickly, efficiently, completes more than his share and is always calm and cool. If I had a team of Ted's my job would be so easy. With total appreciation for all you do, Thank you, Ted.

Innovative Ideas

Suzanne Butch, Blood Bank

Suzanne has lead the Department of Pathology with humor, information and outstanding leadership. With her guidance the committee has updated procedures, addressed safety concerns and made the information more accessible to everyone. Her meetings are organized, thorough and informative. Suzanne's vast knowledge has helped the committee respond to sefety concerns and lead us to ask for help from experts when it is something outside of your realm.

December

Customer Service

Sandra Jasman, Anatomic Pathology

Sandy is an excellent transcriptionist. She is extremely fast and accurate, which is part of her job description, but she also provides excellent customer service to our pathologists by ensuring that her reports are as complete and accurate as possible. She will alert the person dictating of any missed or contradictory information in the dictations. One of our residents relayed to me how much he appreciates her throughness and dedication to her job. Thanks Sandy!