OAHHS Recognizes Excellence In Healthcare

Every year, Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems takes great pride in celebrating excellence in health care by presenting awards to individuals and groups working in Oregon hospitals. The special recognition takes place at the OAHHS Annual Conference, as a highlight of our banquet celebration.

Members submit nominations of their peers in five specific areas:

• Award of Distinction in Media Relations
• Award of Distinction in Community Service
• Individual Professional Excellence in Health Care Leadership
• Individual Professional Excellence in Direct Care-giving
• Award of Innovation in Workforce Design.

2005 Award Recipients

Award of Distinction in Media Relations

Christine Pashley, OHSU News and Publications

Christine plays two important roles in community disaster planning – she is OHSU public information officer and the regional hospital public information officer, where she serves as a member of the Portland Metropolitan Bioterrorism Preparedness Committee. She led the committee in developing a regional communications plan so that all hospitals have seamless communications during a disaster. Because of her work with the regional preparedness committee, we can call any hospital, county health department and state health department when a crisis strikes and craft consistent, timely and accurate public messages.

Top

Award of Distinction in Community Service

Legacy Health System
Legacy Literacy Improvement Today and Legacy Mentoring a Kid Effort

The community service award is given for a program that is a self-sustaining community partnership and could be a model for other areas around the state. Legacy Health System was recognized for offering employees paid time off – up to 1.5 hours per week – to tutor in literacy programs in kindergarten through fifth grades or mentor in middle and high schools. Employees can choose a school close to home and Legacy donates $100 per employee to the school. Since 2000, Legacy has awarded nearly $100,000 to schools throughout the area and in 2005, 290 employees participated in the programs.

Top

Individual Professional Excellence in Health Care Leadership

Gene Williamson, RN, Mgr, PPMC Emergency Department

Gene manages 107 health care providers working at Providence Portland Medical Center including nurses, emergency technicians and health unit coordinators. Under his leadership, the department has zero turnover. There are consistently no openings in the department because people don’t want to leave the team. Gene and his team changed the model of care to support mental health patients who resided in the ED for longer than the average length of stay for other patients. The result was better patient care, higher employee morale and a best practices citation from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.

Top

Individual Professional Excellence in Direct Care-giving

Ida Wolfer, CN, Emergency Department Nurse at Silverton Hospital

In 1969 when Ida Wolfer joined the staff at Silverton Hospital, she “was” the emergency department. “Ed-Ida” as she came to be known to both hospital personnel and the local community, ran the one-woman department without benefit of a full-time physician. Today she works tirelessly to demand and assure excellence in patient care. She mentors new ED nurses, keeping the focus on patient-centered care for both patients and their families. “I always knew that if Ida was around, everything would be ok,” said one of her co-workers.

Top

Award of Innovation in Workforce Design

Pediatric Care Team, Doernbecher Children’s Hospital

Ruby Jason, MSN, RN
Colleen Howard, MSN, RN
Diane Lampa, BSN, RN
Windy Stevenson, MD

The team was chosen for three major initiatives: first - care management, creating daily multidisciplinary care coordination rounds to discuss a plan for the day and plan for the stay, for all patients. The second initiative created multidisciplinary biweekly meetings to discuss avoidable days, 30-day readmits, long lengths of stay cases and all complex cases with barriers to discharge. The third initiative established a pediatric hospitalist program. First year results of these programs included a reduction in lengths of stay by 3,666 days and a bottom line impact of $916,000.

Top