The vice president of Medicine role has grown over the years, with a large span of control over 12 Medicine department sections and a majority of the CMC inpatient beds. Debbie Huddleston’s retirement provided the opportunity to re-evaluate this position, and we’ve decided to divide this role. We are happy to announce that Hunter Choate has accepted the position of vice president of Medicine/Ambulatory-Clinic and Lindsay Collins has accepted the position of vice president of Medicine/Acute Care Services.

After 13 years of service with Carilion, Mike Dame, vice president of Marketing and Communications (MarCom), will be leaving our team effective Jan. 30, 2022. He is relocating to Gainesville, Florida, to be closer to family and support his aging parents.

Watch as carolers from across our system sing a fun song about the holidays, and encourage everyone to get their COVID vaccine and boosters! 

Please consider getting vaccinated or boosted before seeing loved ones, and encourage others to do the same. Visit vaccines.gov for COVID-19 vaccine locations across the country.

It's time to talk about food! Do you have a favorite Thanksgiving side dish or dessert—or maybe even a fantastic recipe—to share? If you do, share it with everyone in the comments section!

Even if you didn’t catch his name, you could remember his smile. It was a grin that was usually paired with one of his beloved roses in his lapel and a Stetson hat, which he would tip as you walked through the front doors of CRMH.

It has been a hard month for our Carilion family.

We have been faced with the tragic loss of five of our colleagues due to illness in just the last four weeks. The recent deaths of our dedicated and precious colleagues come as we enter our 20th month of this pandemic. The losses that you, your teams and your families have felt during this time hurt.  We have a shared grief from which we will surely recover, but we acknowledge these nearly two years and unfathomable pain have taken a toil we will never forget.

What is a typical day like in your job and what are the responsibilities of your role? 
One of the best things about my job is that there is no typical day. As manager of efficiency and sustainability programming systemwide, my day really depends on which projects or initiatives I am working on, and in which department or facility that project resides. 

You may have heard or seen the name, but do you know the meaning behind the DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses? 

According to the DAISY Foundation, the award honors the super-human work nurses do for patients and families every day—something that rings especially true as we’ve been fighting COVID-19 for over a year.  

Patients, families, fellow nurses and employees can nominate a nurse to say thank you for a job excellently done.  

Each year, over 100,000 patients across the U.S. will need an organ transplant. Helping to meet this need in our region, and sometimes beyond it, is the role of our CRMH Organ Donation Committee. Since 2015, CRMH has played a part in saving the lives of over 300 organ donation recipients.

February is Black History Month, when we celebrate the many significant contributions of Black Americans throughout history, and a perfect time to highlight the journeys of our own Black employees and their contributions to our mission.

This month Charles Harris, M.D., chief of staff for Carilion New River Valley Medical Center (CNRV), shared some of his experiences in health care with us.