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 
2013

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

Alice Hopper, Surgical Pathology

During the December holidays, the need arose for someone to stay late on a Friday night to transcribe work for a Pathologist who would be leaving town for an extended period of time. Alice was very willing to stay on working until all of his cases were completed. She worked late into the night that Friday, standing by to complete all of the Pathologist’s dictation. Not only did Alice stay late that night, she is always willing to step up and work whenever needed at any time. 

Customer Service
Martin Morin, Pathology Informatics

Marty consistently responds immediately when desktop support issues occur. He listens to the problem and is a great communicator; explaining in easy terms what he thinks the problem is and working to quickly correct it. The nominator describes Martin as “one of the best examples of customer service I have ever seen” and “our secret weapon for productivity.”

February

Above and Beyond

Jared Babcock, Microbiology

Jared implemented an improvement to microbiology that has solved a long standing problem. The media plates, kept on the counter for daily use, are located where under cabinet lighting causes heat, resulting in condensation on the media plates. Wet media is bad for cultures. Hospital maintenance was not able to change the lighting so Jared went above and beyond, bringing in his own LED light fixture and installing it above the plates. The result? Beautiful, cool light and no more wet media, bringing happiness to all in the lab! 

Creating Synergy
Nick Wesener, Chemical Pathology

Nick recently came up with an idea to boost staff involvement in every day Lean submissions. Staff are entered into a drawing to win a certificate and two hours of TOA for submitting an ELI. Nominator, Sue Stern, said, "It's been a little perk to re-engage staff in the process." Nick also stepped up to the plate and took ownsership when Sue wanted the chemistry newsletter resurrected and, along with the entire midnight staff, published the first newsletter in quite some time. Sue noted, "I appreciate Nick's enthusiasum and involvement in the lab regardless of the fact that he works midnight shift."

March

Innovative Ideas

Jeff Bauer, MLabs

The Washtenaw County Epidemiologist called with the name of a 6 month old UMHS patient who had a high Lead level but no one could find any information on the baby in Careweb or PathNet in order to contact the parents. Jeff took the patient's date of birth and the first and last name initials and was able to find a similar patient in Careweb. The State had the second letter of the last name wrong which changed the name completely from one common name to another. This was confirmed as the correct patient and the contact information was forwarded to the appropriate agency. Unless Jeff took the initiative to use this innovative search method in Careweb, the correct patient would not have been identified. The Epidemiologist was very grateful he took the extra step to find this crucial information.

Above and Beyond

Jane Ferguson, Mary Lou Erber, Christine Meldrum, Denise Brown, Lisa Paradise and Elizabeth McCloud

Point of Care

Of the Point of Care team of Christine Meldrum, Denise Brown, Lisa Paradise, Mary Lou Erber and Elizabeth McCloud, the nominator writes, "Amongst the organized chaos of Master Control, MiChart and SOFT, this group demonstrated great 'In House' customer service. They promoted teamwork and consistency across blood draw stations by creating and sharing several SOFT procedures. This was not only a huge help to our management team, eliminating duplicated work efforts, but also to our staff downstream, as we move forward with training. Even patients will feel the benefits of their work, as this will help to create consistency in work practices across all MLabs blood draw stations. Thank you!!"

April

Innovative Ideas

Suzanne Clark, Inpatient Phlebotomy

The nominator states, "Sue took the initiative to create training videos for our upcoming SOFT LIS implementation. These videos are very well constructed, and will help us to maintain consistency, and allow us to utilize time more efficiently during our training process. Thank you!"

Above and Beyond

Christine Gaunt, Pathology Informatics

Chris took the initiative to work over a holiday weekend, manually verifying and releasing bulk test orders bound for the MMGL and for reference lab work queues. The division's goal of reaching or exceeding 66% results verification was met and her efforts made the difference between the LIS project staying on track vs. it being placed into significant jeopardy.

Linda Milkey, Sheri Swelton and Lorraine Bourassa, Surgical Pathology

The Consult Accessioning team has been short 2 employees for the past two months and have been working extremely hard to keep up with all of the work-and have been doing it successfully. Linda, Sheri and Lorraine are extremely dedicated to the department and try to make things better every day.

Customer Service

Dawn Wright, Specimen Procurement

When a new courier ruined specimens from 16 patients by placing them on dry ice instead of refrigerating them, Dawn worked quickly to search for additional specimens in other labs to salvage the tests. She was able to find 15 of them, saving 15 patients from redraw!

Creating Synergy

Amy Bird, Point of Care

Amy has impressed colleagues and patients alike by providing excellent customer care. She knows many of her patients and shows care and concern for the daily lives and personal concerns. She works tenaciously to find the answers to any issues that arise and goes above and beyond to step in to help her coworkers. She's also recognized as a wonderful teacher, giving her colleagues an opportunity to learn.

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

The winners of the cafeteria gift card drawing for the month of March are:  Chris White and Sharon Henderson, Histology.

May

Above and Beyond

Devon Kandrevas, Chemical Pathology

Devon took the initiative to learn SOFT on her own and became a “Super User” with no formal training. As a result, she was able to train many off shift employees. She took on this added responsibility without being asked. The nominator states, “ It was a natural fit and we would not be as prepared as we are without her. Devon has devoted countless hours training, testing and understanding the system all while doing her other job duties. She is a true asset to the Drug Analysis/Toxicology Lab. Thanks Devon!”

Anita Kittell, Histology

Anita is always very patient with the back counter staff asking for paperwork. For this particular nomination, she stayed almost 45 minutes late to type up a gross description that had been missed. She also helped trouble shoot some other early paperwork that was incomplete.

Customer Service

Emily Hull, Deneen Wilson, Point of Care

After a staff accident shut down the lab until 10 am on a Monday morning, Deneen and Emily were contacted to see if they’d be willing to come in to work an hour early to accommodate patients so they’d have a place to go for their morning blood draws. Deneen and Emily agreed to come in, providing the best example of putting patients and families first.

Creating Synergy

Christine Rigney, Anatomic Pathology Administration

The nominator states, “Working in conjunction with Surgery, operation room management, Office of Patient Safetey, Biomed and Surgical Pathology, Chrstine, helped the group design and implement a new process to track all explanted devices from the ORs. Prior to new process there was really no standard for handling devices and compliance was below 50%. Now specimens are picked up by an OR runner, entered into tracking system, photographed and grossed by Pas and stored. Since much of this work is now handled by Pathology employees, the process is standardized and has saved many other departments anxiety, time and effort in looking for devices for medicolegal cases, to ship back to manufacturer, transfer to Biomed, etc. In the first month, compliance has already increased to over 85%. We should thank Chrstine for not only her dedication to work done in Anatomic Pathology but also the fact that everyday she also thinks about how we (all of the individual departments in UMHS) can work as a team to improve patient care.”

Innovative Ideas

John Perrin, Anatomic Pathology Administration

John collaborated with a team from Surgery to address the broken flow of clinical lab specimens moving out of the ORs and to clinical labs for testing. John had the idea of having the OR runners pick up the specimens to ensure timely delivery and eliminate the multiple hand outs, eliminating the chance for multiple errors and freeing up the phlebotomy staff, who had previously delivered the specimens, to focus on patient draws. The nominator states, “John is a LEAN thinker and has contributed to several other improvement projects! Patients are better and our operation is more efficient because we have him on our TEAM!!!”

June

Above and Beyond

Kalyani Naik, Pathology Informatics

Kalyani was nominated for her commitment to the Soft project. The nominator states, "From the very beginning she worked tirelessly and continues to do so today with the inevitable issues that arise from a go-live of this size. She was and is always there when anyone needs her and we commend her for an outstanding job in all she does, but in particular with the Soft project.

Denise Ziemba, Hematology

Denise has gone above and beyond in implementing Soft into the Hematology workflow. She has worked diligently to troubleshoot problems related to the hematology analyzer and soft. She has stayed late due to problems with Soft and its implementation. During all this, she also worked with another UM employee to help that employee gain the hours necessary to become a Hematology Med Tech.

July

Above and Beyond

Tara Lilley and Jill Russell, Microbiology

Tara Lilley and Jill Russell identified an instrument reading error for molecular testing causing test failures. This was a rare event and difficult to reproduce. Tara and Jill created a set of samples that could reproduce the error and worked with the manufacturer to correct the issue. Patient samples were moved to alternate instruments until the issue was resolve, avoiding test failures, delayed results and the need for repeat testing.

Customer Service

Fadi Gammou, Microbiology

The nominator states, "Fadi recognized that there was a poorly-staining organism in the lymph node Gram stain that he was reading. He suspected that it was acid fast bacilli, which can be very difficult to find in a Gram stain. He and a co-worker performed a stain specifically for acid fast bacilli, and he was proven correct. He was then able to escalte this result to the Senior technologist and the doctors were notified immediately of this unusual find. Upon review, it was noted that this was a very good catch because there wasn't much organism present and it was staining very poorly."

September

Above and Beyond

Mary Soucie, Surgical Pathology 

Mary stepped in and went Above and Beyond when a pediatric enal clinician needed a rush specimen on a Saturday morning. The clinician had been unable to find someone to help him and Mary made numerous phone calls and found someone to rush the specimen. The nominator states, "It is wonderful to have someone outside of our area see what great patient care Mary delivers every day."

Customer Service

Jeanette Gohl, Surgical Pathology

The nominator states, "Jeanette covered a vacation, handling a two-person job all by herself. She kept her cool in spite of a huge volume of work, some days without any breaks…She is great at organizing and prioritizing tasks to provide good customer service to our in-house customers and our patients."

October

Creating Synergy

Nancy Fritzemeier, Surgical Pathology

Nancy is receiving this award for being a true team player and team builder. The nominator shared that, among other things, "Nancy goes out of her way to make sure everyone understands procedures and she doesn't hesitate to spend extra time with someone who does not. She's available 24/7 for anyone who needs help and always has a warm, friendly smile on her face...She strives to make those around her feel appreciated."

November

Above and Beyond

Sheri Welton, Surgical Pathology

Sheri always gives 100%, but a short time ago her area was extremely short staffed. Sheri worked a double shift to make sure our pathologists had their cases and the patient's were cared for in a timely manner. She takes her job very seriously and is always willing to give 200% when needed. Sheri is extremely efficient and accurate in her work. I truly appreciate all she does every day! 

Customer Service

Diana LeBlanc, Outpatient Phlebotomy

Dee always takes the time to help problem solve. Recently the nominator needed to find a reason that microbiology has missed a urine culture. By starting back at patient services she was able to help find that a MiChart order was not properly done. They were able to work with the MiChart staff and the physician to correct the problem. Dee is always polite and willing to be helpful. 

Creating Synergy

Judy Knakiewicz, Histocompatibility

The nominator states that Judy is a hard  worker, honest, dedicated and committed. She is a great teacher and loves to share knowledge and experience. In tissue typing, we deal with patients that are candidates for kidney, heart, lung and live transplants. Judy has a passion  for each patient's critical health status and always meets the deadlines in her work projects. 

December

Above and Beyond

Tom Peterson, Pathology Informatics

Tom is being recognized by the Department of Cytopathology for his tireless construction, configuration, implementation and troubleshooting of a mobile tele-pathology cart pilot for use with our fine needle aspiration procedures. He came to cytology numerous times working around normal clinical use of the cart to continue working on the project from start to finish.. Already implemented as a pilot, Tom continues to monitor and provide enhancements when needed. 

Above and Beyond

Rachel Roach, Pathology Informatics 

Rachel has worked on the Soft Development team for the past year. She has worked countless hours building, rebuilding and fixing Soft as well as training the entire AP  department in the care and feeding of Soft. She is always kind and patient with anyone who asks her the same question 10 times. She does whatever is asked without complaint and takes everything in stride. I have so much respect and admiration for Rachel and appreciate what she has done behind the scenes to get us to where we are. I know she will continue to work quietly and effeciently at improving Soft.