Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center Wins President’s Award

Covenant Health celebrated the accomplishments of individual employees and collaborative teams throughout our health system at the inaugural President’s Excellence Awards celebration, held in mid-November at the Knoxville Marriott. This year’s awards reflected not only individual and team project accomplishments, but also focused on Covenant Health’s Pledge of Excellence in the selection of honorees. 

 “The pledge is the very core of who we are at Covenant Health,” said Jim VanderSteeg, President and CEO. “The President’s Excellence Awards still recognize individuals and teams, but more importantly, they recognize living, breathing examples of the Pledge of Excellence in action.”

 “The awards also honor leadership,” he continued. “Our health system’s most important obligation and opportunity is to develop strong leaders, and all of the employees who are being recognized are strong and committed leaders.”

Thirteen Covenant Health employees were selected as nominees in the Individual Achievement category and six winners were selected. Among those are Fort Sanders Regional Chaplain Randy Tingle and Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center Physical Therapist Michele Lloyd.

For Team Achievement Awards, 16 projects were submitted for consideration. The selection process included pre-screening at the facility level, judging by external healthcare and process improvement professionals, and final selection by the Executive Leadership Team.
 
Fort Sanders Regional won a Team Achievement award for its ICOUGH program, instituted to deploy evidence-based approaches for surgical patients’ recovery and reduction of pulmonary complications. Results include a significant reduction in post-operative pneumonia.

In addition to four Team Achievement awards, team awards were also given for Innovation, Improvement and Sustainability. Fort Sanders Regional also took home the Sustainability award for “Impacting Stroke Care: Sustainability in tPA Administration.” This project focused on reducing door-to-needle times for stroke patients by developing procedures for administering tPA in the CT suite to minimize delays in treatment.

The most prestigious award of the day – the President’s Award – was also presented to the Fort Sanders Regional Stroke Team in recognition of the hospital’s accomplishments in impacting stroke care, becoming an accredited Comprehensive Stroke Center, and its role in developing the hub-and-spoke approach for Covenant Health’s stroke hospital network. The President’s Award, Covenant Health’s highest honor, was given to the project that most reflected Covenant’s mission, goals, and Pledge of Excellence.

Fort Sanders Regional team members were also recognized for their involvement in the “Covenant Health Breast Center Oncology Service Line Initiative,” submitted by the Breast Centers of Covenant Health; and “Recruitment and Retention Improvement,” submitted by Covenant Health Employment Services.

Congratulations to all the 2017 award winners!