Ohio’s Hospice Celebrates Third Quarter of 2024 Bouquet of Recognition Honorees
Outstanding members of Ohio’s Hospice staff are recognized each quarter with the Bouquet of Recognition Awards for Excellence. Honorees personify the qualities found in the mission and values of Ohio’s Hospice and are the foundation upon which remarkable patient experiences are built.
These honorees consistently demonstrate excellence through their expertise and extraordinary care of patients and families. They are recognized as outstanding role models in the Ohio’s Hospice community. These are the recipients for the third quarter of 2024.
Teri McGill, quality assurance analyst, is our Carnation Award honoree.
Quality Assurance Analyst, Barb Nohacs, describes McGill as someone willing to go the extra mile to help her teammates.
“Recently, Teri took the initiative to give extra one-on-one mentoring to a newer admission nurse,” Nohacs explained. “She could see that her teammate would benefit from the extra attention.”
McGill reached out to her teammate to go over documentation and ended up spending the day mentoring while still taking care of her own duties.
“I’m certain that Teri took the time to provide direction and reassurance,” Nohacs said. “She definitely went above and beyond and deserves this award. She does a great job for our organization and is an asset to our team.”
Quality Assurance Analyst, April Howell, echoed those sentiments, stating that McGill supports her own team along with all teams providing direct patient care.
“Teri patiently reaches out to staff guiding them on how to meet documentation requirements and to their documentation to ‘paint the picture’ of hospice eligibility,” Howell said.
McGill is an invaluable resource for Ohio’s Hospice!
Ohio’s Hospice is proud to be a DAISY Award® partner, recognizing nurses with this special honor quarterly. At Ohio’s Hospice, DAISY Award honorees are nurses who consistently demonstrate excellence through their clinical expertise and extraordinary compassionate care.
Regina Huff was recognized with the DAISY Award for her dedication to our mission.
Team Leader, Christina Gormican, says Huff understands that our nurses are guided by servant leadership, kindness, honesty and compassion.
She shared a story that exemplified Regina’s attention to providing our patients and families superior care and superior services to help them navigate a life-limiting illness with dignity and respect.
“Regina was dispatched to see a patient who was extremely agitated and had started to become aggressive towards family members,” Gormican said. “Upon Regina’s arrival, the patient ran out the door and into the street. The patient threatened Regina with physical harm, so she backed away and called 911 as well as our on-call provider.”
Acting based on her training and instincts, Huff was able to manage the stressful situation when police arrived and began to question her about the troubling incident.
“Regina explained the situation and advocated for the patient to be transported to the ER so she could safely transfer the patient to the Ohio’s Hospice Inpatient Unit (IPU),” Gormican explained. “She was advocating while trying to keep the patient out of the street and out of the way oncoming traffic.”
Once at the ER, Huff continued to advocate for the patient as hospital staff wanted to discharge the patient back home, but Huff did not relent in her effort to do the right thing for our patient.
Huff continually advocated for the safety of the patient and the patient’s family, while providing accurate information to the hospital staff, police and EMT’s on the patient’s disease process and symptoms that were being experienced.
“As Regina Huff’s team leader, I feel she handled this situation beautifully and fought for what was best for the patient, who was safely transferred to the Ohio’s Hospice IPU that night,” Gormican said. “She is a teammate who takes great care of her patients. I appreciate all that she does.”
Anna Speelman was awarded the Bouquet of Recognition Tulip Award, which recognizes chaplains, social workers, therapists, counselors, physicians, and pharmacists for their hard work.
Speelman was nominated by Kristen Stucki, who said she deserves recognition because of her dedication to making sure the job is well done.
“As the IPU (Inpatient Unit) social worker Anna is often assisting patients transition to their next level of care: home, LTC (Long Term Care) facility, moving into a family’s residence etc.,” Stucki said. “No matter how simple or complex the transition may be for the patient and family, Anna goes above and beyond to make sure the entire team knows how best to take the torch and run with it to make it smooth and successful. Anna is a great communicator and truly shows her passion for her work with the dedication she puts into it. Her approach and work ethic is admirable and she always makes me want to be a better social worker and person.”
Sunflower Award – Sonya Phillippi
The Sunflower Award honors personal care specialists who take care of a patient’s personal needs with dignity, compassion, and empathy. They provide quality nursing assistance to patients, assist patients’ families with care, and work with the interdisciplinary care team. Sonya Phillippi was recognized with this honor.
Johnna North said in a nomination statement for Phillippi that the superior care and services received for her father was above and beyond what could have been expected.
“Sonya is wonderful with my 99-year-old father. He has always been independent and proud. He would never allow anyone to take care of him,” North said. “Sonya came in and worked miracles. Now, my dad looks forward to her coming to give him his shower, trim his beard, and making him feel handsome again!”
North feels extremely satisfied and thankful for the care given to her father by Phillippi.
“My father always says, ‘if it is not Sonya providing care, don’t bother,’” North explained. He only trusts Sonya and she is so good to him. I wouldn’t want anyone else taking care of my father!”
RN Care Manager, Stephanie Rank, calls Phillippi a go-getter, who has an amazing work ethic.
“She has earned the reputation for being able to assist some of our more challenging patients with personal care that they otherwise refuse,” Rank said.
A recent example Rank noted, was when a male patient who came to Ohio’s Hospice and had been struggling with bathing before coming into our care. Phillippi was able to get him to accept Ohio’s Hospice support and care.
“He warmed up to the idea of having a personal care assistant (PCS) visit and Sonya was able to shower him and transfer him to the hospital bed,” Rank said. “He asked her to come back to help him shave and buzz his hair off.”
She added that Phillippi is remarkable at her job and, “her patients and families love her. She is a tremendous asset to Ohio’s Hospice.
