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 
2011

 

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:

 

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January

Customer Service

Amy Jackson - Blood Bank

"Amy provided ER Staff with complete directions and paperwork for collecting a PreAdmission Type and Screen specimen - a task not normally completed in the ER.  Customer service at its best!"

 

Innovative Ideas

Brent Temple - Pathology Informatics

"Brent's efforts in the development of a web-based Cytopathology supplies ordering system was innovative and has performed flawlessly, and helps to manage the many requests.  He was professional, prompt and we hope to have the opportunity to work with him again!"

 

Above and Beyond

Bill Hubbard - Pathology Informatics

"Bill developed a process for automatically flagging patients with isolation precautions in UM-Carelink.  This will protect ALL patients and medical staff at UMHS.  Per Jennifer Arndt of Infection Control:  'This is going to be immensely helpful in getting patients appropriately isolated!' Bill completed the coding for this functionality on his own time"

 

Creating Synergy

Theresa Downs - Blood Bank

"Terry works long days and comes in on weekends, even when not on call.  She does an outstanding job accommodating vacation and scheduling requests.  She is always there to answer questions and assist with problems and is always pleasant AND patient!"

 

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February

Customer Service

Noreen Clisham - Specimen Processing

"Noreen routinely accepts "lost specimen printouts and digs deep to locate specimens.  She even dug through Hematology's discards to find a sample Chemistry did not receive".  Customer service provided to our staff!

 

Innovative Ideas

Stephen Marshall - Pathology Informatics

"The Blood Drawing Lab at the Livonia Health Center needed a local printer.  The connection was not easy to complete and Steve made several trips and tried numerous things to make this connection work.  The new printer has made significant improvements in the work flow".  Innovative ideas include solutions to problems that others give up on!

 

Above and Beyond

Barbara Earhart - Inpatient Phlebotomy

"The Blizzard of 2011 brought numerous staff shortages in our laboratories and Barb didn't hesitate to work 18 hours to ensure that patient care did not suffer!"  Putting patients and families first!

 

Creating Synergy

David Harro - Chemical Pathology

"Addressing safety issues and keep records up to date AND keeping staff informed - all on top of other routine responsibilities".  Creating synergy is being active in team efforts and improving morale through your actions!

 

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March

Above and Beyond

Beth Minors - Anatomic Pathology Administration

"In her role providing support to Dr. Jeff Myers, Beth wears many hats!  Faculty recruitment plays a key role in the life of a Division Director's administrative assistant and during a recent interview period Beth "took the initiative to drive her personal automobile (rather than utilizing her van pool) so she could put together a post-it flip chart, maps and colored markers for a faculty candidate's family member knowing they loved to draw maps and also delivered a gift basket to the candidate's hotel filled with handpicked treats.  This is just one example of many showing Beth going above and beyond"

 

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April

Customer Service

Brooks Barnes - Pathology Administration

"Arrangements for an urgent delivery of a stored centrifuge from Corrigan prevented delays in processing of patient samples for AFB culture after a breakdown of a centrifuge in Microbiology.  This allowed the processing of these specimens on Friday evening and through the weekend."

 

Innovative Ideas

John Hamilton - Pathology Informatics

John Perrin - Anatomic pathology Administration

"The creation of a web-based tool to order and track orders for immunohistochemical, special stains and recuts in real time improves our ability to provide optimal patient care by addressing the substantial waste and risks inherent in a geographically dispersed practice that requires transportation of tissue blocks and unstained slides."

 

Above and Beyond

Christine Betts - Anatomic Pathology Administration

"Christine goes above and beyond in her duties as administrative assistant to multiple faculty.  She is in charge of organizing slides for Breast tumor board as one of these duties.  To ensure that slides were available in time, she personally picked them up at East Ann Arbor and received a speeding ticket for this effort!"

 

Creating Synergy

Billie Jo Bennett - MLabs

Deborah Moss - MLabs

Mary Smith - MLabs

"Congratulations to the MLabs Customer Service Team for a successful move to Traverwood.  This was accomplished with no interruption in the service provided to our MLabs clients!"

 

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May

Customer Service
Catherine Cieniuch - Immunology
Karen Wilkerson - Immunology
Mary Laug - Immunology
Dawn Curtis - Immunology

"In response to a call from an MLabs client, requesting for STAT results to treat a patient, the Immunology Team completed the required test, contacted Dr. Warren to read the results and were able to provide the results to the physician quickly to enable treatment of the patient.  Outstanding customer service provided and improved patient care!"

Innovative Ideas
Leesa Stanislovaitis - MLabs

"Using the LEAN process, Leesa created a new QC process for Surgical Pathology Requisitions.  This process has resulted in a decrease of time and effort in handling these requisitions for our MLabs Office and are a perfect example of ideas that improve our workplace!"

Above and Beyond
Deborah Soldner - Microbiology

Noting an unusually high number of positive VRE screens, quick action and a thorough thought process by Debbie led to a determination that the media was not working properly and the screens were re-cultured.  These actions prevented unnecessary isolation for patients!"

 

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June

Customer Service

Peggy Otto, Research Administration

The conversion of submitting payroll from a paper process to an automated process required significant planning – including scheduling demonstrations and defining groups and authorized signers.  Peggy's contributions during this process have been significant and she continues to be the "go to" person for the many inquiries from faculty and staff.  She not only has the answers, but takes the time to work with all when these questions arise ensuring that the questions are answered and the process is complete!  This is customer service at its best!

 

Above and Beyond

Karen Mackay, Microbiology

"Karen's willingness to work the afternoon shift for the pilot run in Bacteriology along with feedback that will be used to execute a plan to reduce turnaround time for culture results and susceptibilities" are key examples of her selection as this month’s recipient for recognition of contributions that are above and beyond!

 

Creating Synergy

Suzanne Butch, Blood Bank

Suzanne's suggestion of holding a "duct tape contest" during National Medical Laboratory Week resulted in a remarkable display of creativity and teamwork.  A slam dunk for creating synergy among all employees!

 

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July

Above and Beyond

Deann Chick - Specimen Procurement

Jody Metski - Specimen Procurement

Tabitha Simonelli - Specimen Procurement

Incorrect handling of a specimen for a cancer center patient could have resulted in an additional visit for a re-draw and delayed results to the clinician.  Deann, Jody and Tabitha, working with the Specimen Processing Lab to locate the patient resulted in an immediate re-draw thereby saving the patient from a revisit for this purpose and ensuring the clinician had timely results.  Putting patients first!

 

Creating Synergy

Karen Schairer - Blood Bank

Adjusting priorities, re-arranging a work schedule, cross training – all are the attributes Karen exhibits as part of her daily routine to ensure staff in the Blood Bank have what is needed to provide the best service for patients and clinical staff.  As indicated in her nomination, “Karen is one of those people who make the rest of us look good!”  An outstanding representation of creating synergy!

 

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August

Above and Beyond

Lisa Hagler-Edwards - Surgical Pathology

Danielle Marshall - Surgical Pathology

In response to a clinician requesting a rush complex excision late on a Friday afternoon, Lisa and Danielle proceeded to embed and cut the excision, and stain the slides for review by our pathologist, Dr. Fullen.  Dr. Fullen reviewed them on Friday evening and relayed the findings to the clinician allowing the patient’s reconstructive surgery to be completed as scheduled.  An outstanding example of putting patients first!

 

Innovative Ideas

John Perrin - Pathology Administration

John’s assistance in teaching Excel and developing a spreadsheet to aggregate data for Pediatric Pathology in a way that was both interesting and fun helped to improve process for the service’s administrative assistant. It is truly “innovative” to share knowledge, making it interesting and fun while accomplishing improvements!

 

Creating Synergy

Judith Lobato - Microbiology

Judy’s coordination with Surgical Pathology staff to pick up pre-packaged hazardous chemical waste during routine sweeps in the laboratory is an outstanding example of teamwork!  This has resulted in significant time savings for the Microbiology technical staff and couldn’t have been accomplished without a team effort on the part of both Microbiology and Surgical Pathology!

 

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September

Customer Service

Mark Deming – Pathology Imaging

Elizabeth Walker – Pathology Imaging  

Mark and Liz are called upon to provide imaging services by a large customer base and often commit extra effort (and time) to complete projects in a timely fashion. Their ability to satisfy a large group of customers on a regular basis and as indicated in the nomination, “get the photos to me ahead of time”, is a true example of customer service!

 

Innovative Ideas

Todd Kandow – Pathology Informatics

Todd’s efforts in creating a query that extracts patient information into a “quick reference” check for the Transplant Team provides information for compliance of the potential transplant patient and results in a time savings for both the Transplant Team and the Tissue Typing Lab. This innovative idea results in improved patient care and time savings!

 

Above and Beyond

Judy Nyhuis – Microbiology

As training coordinator for Microbiology’s specimen processing area, Judy works with all new employees. Flexing her schedule to accommodate new midnight shift employees, she has ensured that this group receives appropriate support as they learn their new responsibilities. This effort is a true reflection of “above and beyond”!

 

Creating Synergy

Bonnie Grayson – Specimen Processing

Knowing that a software upgrade in Chemistry would likely cause a slowdown in work flow, Bonnie, working with her team, assisted with the centrifugation of samples, removing one of the manual steps for the Chemistry technical staff during this upgrade. Teamwork is the benchmark of creating synergy and Bonnie and her team accomplished this and in the process made a stressful situation more tolerable for both Specimen Processing and Chemistry!

 

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October

Above and Beyond

Thomas Franks – HLA Tissue Typing

Tom’s development, implementation and validation of the Flow Crossmatch for the HLA Tissue Typing Laboratory enabled this assay to be offered to the Transplant Team. He wrot all of the instructions and procedures to assemble the assay from its components, the protocol to perform the assay and the instructions to AQ and QC the reagents and instruments. In addition, he prepared the presentation for training teams on this assay. As indicated in his nomination, “This contribution will benefit significantly the transplant physicians in the management of our patients and will help to reduce the cost of this assay to our department”. An outstanding examp

 

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November

Customer Service
Laura Hessler – Pathology Graduate Program   

“Laura provided yet another outstanding job for the organization of the Annual Pathology Research Program that is hosted by the Graduate Students”. She does this every year and puts on a show that normally takes a large team to do and all with the most cheery attitude”.

Innovative Ideas
Timothy Williams – HLA Tissue Typing
Jennifer Vezina – Cytogenetics

“The establishment of a recycling program for the Traverwood Laboratories including working with the Ann Arbor Recycle Program, obtaining collection carts and tubs, developing a protocol for recycling and sharing with staff have encouraged staff to work in a way that is environmentally friendly and cost-effective. These efforts will help benefit our environment for generations to follow.”

Bonni Grayson – Specimen Processing

“Selected test ordering for Microbiology in Specimen Processing has resulted in more efficient processing of specimens and lessened the bottleneck that was occurring in the Microbiology processing area. A heartfelt thanks to Bonnie from the Microbiology staff or assisting in the implementation of this process.”

 

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December

Customer Service
Oliver Bichakjian – Pathology Informatics   

“As one of the primary contacts during the migration from Groupwise to Outlook, Oliver had many troubled customers and a multitude of responses to provide! He handled these requests during that hectic time in the same manner he responds to all inquiries – with a smile and a solution. Oliver’s continuing actions are a perfect example of customer service”.

Innovative Ideas - Team Award:
Mary Greene, Heather Straw, Christine Betts, Peggy Otto (Administrative Support),
Lynn McCain (Office of the Chair), Marie Sassano (Academic Human Resources),
Paulette Dozier (Surgical Pathology), and Denise Sulavik (Hematopathology)

“This group worked together to develop an orientation booklet for new administrative assistants. This tool provides a multitude of information for new staff in the Department of Pathology. An “innovative idea” for consolidating a wealth of information”!

 

Above and Beyond
Liz Bauer, Kathleen Cullen and Linda Lapsley – Microbiology

“Liz, Kathleen and Linda were instrumental in moving real-time plate reading to the afternoon shift. They conducted “Foundations of Bacteriology”, each worked for 3 weeks (primarily on the afternoon shift) with a technologist to complete this training and accomplished this in a few short months”. Their dedication and flexibility are truly “above and beyond”.
 

David Golden – Finance and Research Administration

“In response to noting the struggles of a co-worker with Microsoft Access, David volunteered tutoring services. Over a period of a month, he worked with John Perrin to set up two main databases and provided instruction on writing queries. As noted, the combination of Excel and Access will improve efficiency. Stepping up and out of the every day”!

Creating Synergy
Khizar Jahangir – Surgical Pathology

“Anticipating the needs of others and making every effort to exceed them should be our goal! Khizar’s actions once noting that demand in the consult and accessioning area exceeded the capacity for returns. This was discovered during Khizar’s normal mail run and once completed, he volunteered several hours of time to assist with returns. Promoting teamwork is a benchmark of creating synergy”!