The Spirit of Excellence recognizes employees and/or departments for going above and beyond to provide an exceptional service for patients and/or staff members.
Christy Otten, Lab Manager, and Dan Walker, Director of Ancillary Services, were nominated for demonstrating exceptional patient care, providing exceptional service that made a significant improvement to the quality of life of a patient, and have gone above and beyond to provide an exceptional service for that patient.
In a letter to CEO, Joann Emge, the patient shared her experience.
“I am writing to make you aware of what exemplary staff you have in the laboratory at Sparta Community Hospital. One Friday I had to call the lab, following up for results of a test that I needed by the following Monday.
The results of that test would determine how my surgeon at another hospital proceeded.
Laboratory Manager, Christy Otten, answered the call and heard my frustration. She found the specimen and saw that, although it had been collected on Monday at a 2:00 appointment, it had not been received in the lab until after the 1:00 courier pickup on Tuesday. Ice and snow during the week had prevented courier pickups on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday so there was no way the specimen would get to the pathology lab until after my Monday appointment.
Christy told me she would check to see if there was anything they could do to get me the results sooner and she would call me back. A few minutes later she called and told me they were going to drive the specimen to the lab, and I would have the results by Monday. I later learned that Dan Walker, Ancillary Services Director, had called Belleville Pathology and that he drove the specimen to the lab. At 5:00 pm, I received a call from Family Health Centre that the results of the test were negative. Had Christy and Dan not acted with such exemplary service, I would have had surgery that was not necessary. They went well beyond what their typical jobs entail. In addition, they helped me personally. They both truly embody the hospital‘s mission of “compassionate value-based services”. Patients in Sparta are fortunate to have the hospital lab staffed by caring, compassionate people who provide such service.
I do not know how you honor employees who are to be commended, but Christy Otten and Dan Walker are deserving of recognition. Thank you for all you do for our community.”