Special thanks to Carilion night shift nurses Dania Woolfrey and Makayla Horn for staying over to help out with the code blue that occurred at shift change this morning. This was especially helpful since the 2nd ICU nurse was on call. They even stayed and helped with transporting the critical patient to radiology for a CT. You girls never cease to amaze me with your teamwork and dedication to the inpatient units. Thank you for all that you do! Thanks also to all of the inpatient nurse's and CNA's day and night shift, Dr. Burton, Teresa,RT, Michael,RT for all of your help.

I want to say "Thank You" to several of the EVS staff for helping us clean up a stairwell in our parking garage being used by some homeless visitors.  There were personal items, bedding, clothes and other items that needed to be thrown away.  EVS was contacted and had the stairwell cleaned that afternoon.  They went above and beyond their normal duties to ensure the area was cleaned and safe.  BIG shout out to:

1. Leonard Gaskins
2. Jay Johnson
3. Tito Candory
4. Landon Franklin
5. Reggie Graves

The Franklin Emergency Department nursing team, including Unit Director Stephanie Hodges and CLTs Brook Brown and Kelli Belcher, tested new technology and processes last week aimed at reducing the time required to triage patients presenting to the emergency room.  This team has always been the first in line to try out new ways to improve the care that we provide to our patients and their enthusiasm is unmatched.  I love collaborating with them time and again and always look forward to our projects together.  They truly have their patient

Congratulations to the very first ever Nurse Leader of the Year – Laurie Miller!

We are proud to share a copy of her nomination below:

A surgical patient had the erroneous BPA activation that stated, "the patient has an anticoagulant, antiplatelet or fibrinolytic order and an active order or recent epidural or spinal.” The BPA was a source of much confusion for staff and did not fire in accordance with the existing Perioperative/Periprocedural Management of Anticoagulation and Antiplatelet guidelines. This issue was immediately recognized by Allison and Kathi. A TSG ticket was placed, and the BPA activation has been corrected.

Matt was nominated by his peers, and they stated that he has shown such exemplary leadership for the CCU team, he leads with so much heart, passion, and purpose for the goals and needs of his team.  Matt is always willing to jump in and help with any situation, adding humor, calmness, and steadiness to all levels of acuity. He is steadfast, transparent, and so genuine with all of his interactions, implementations, or communications with both his own CCU team, and all the other departments of the hospital.

Family and Community Medicine spent time on Thursday recognizing our practice leaders and their continued commitment to collaboration with each other, other departments and most importantly with our employees and our patients as a delayed celebration of Carilion Proud week.  Our practice leaders do so much throughout the year to ensure our teams and patients are cared for, it was an opportunity to say "Thank You" for their year-long commitment and collaboration.

On behalf of the Ambulatory Recognition Council, thank you to everyone who participated in Spirit Days and trivia during Carilion Proud Week!

Congratulations to our trivia raffle winners:

• Jeremy Howard (Pediatric Medicine, Daleville)
• Natalie Pinegar (Ortho, Roanoke)
• Danielle Dix (Child Life Services, Roanoke)
• Taylor Lawhorn (Family Medicine, Vinton)
• Michele Richardson (Urogynecology, Roanoke)

We appreciate everyone who joined in the fun, and we look forward to celebrating with you again next year!

May 22nd is National “Stop the Bleed” Day!

STOP THE BLEED® is the result of a collaborative effort led by the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma (ACS COT) and the ACS COT EMS Subcommittee to bring knowledge of bleeding control to the public.

Recently, Drs. Eric Marvin, Srijan Adhikari and Mark Witcher traveled to Kathmandu, Nepal, to collaborate with the neurosurgical team at Bir Hospital, part of the National Academy of Medical Sciences. Bir Hospital provides critical care to approximately 30 million citizens and serves as the country’s primary public health care site.