Island Health hosted their annual Employee Recognition Banquet on May 12, 2023 at the Swinomish Casino. Historically this evening has been a fun and engaging event to recognize staff for their years of service and announce the Employee of the Year awardee.

Island Health revamped their Employee of the Month and Year program in early 2023 to move to a more widespread way of showing recognition for their employees. The CARES Champions recognition program debuted in March of this year to rave reviews. This in-the-moment, peer-to-peer program is intended to recognize a team member for living the Island Health CARES values: Compassion, Accountability, Respect, Excellence and Stewardship.

Island Health celebrated their CARES Champions who went above and beyond with a CARES All-star award. With five awards in total, the All-star accolade recognizes outstanding demonstrations in living the Island Health values. A selection committee comprised of Island Health leaders and Morale, Wellness and Recognition (MWR) representatives reviewed all nominations received through the end of April to select the winners. Island Health is pleased to announce their 2023 CARES All-stars!

Compassion: Kat Romero, CNA; Emergency Department
“Kat is so amazing. She exceeds all the CARES values. It is hard to just pick one. She has a very warm and comforting bedside manner with all of the patients. She is professional and respectful to all patients and staff. She is a fantastic team player. She is a pure joy and a ray of sunshine to work with. A true asset to the ER.”

Accountability: Morgan Carmody; Medical Records
“Morgan does an amazing job of supporting Island Health patients with our patient portal! Portal support requests come in regarding a wide variety of devices, operating systems and computer literacy. Morgan eloquently addresses every patient inquiry with articulate, detailed information often with several solution options—all in layman’s terms. He is tremendously resourceful in getting solutions for our patients. Morgan supports our Island Health team around the portal as well and he is always willing to help and follows up to close the loop! Morgan is certainly a component of our success with our patient portal and so many of us appreciate his integrity and ownership of this work! Thank you, Morgan!”

Respect: Teri Shilling, MS, LCC, CD(DONA), IBCLC; Island Primary Care – 24^th Street, Lactation, Birth Center
“Pregnancy is a scary and exciting time for a lot of people and so many choices/unwanted advice/anecdotal and professional information gets dumped on a lot of these new parents. Teri is so good about making patients aware of ALL choices available to them, what to look for in providers/midwives, and what resources new parents and moms can reliably use.”

Excellence: Michelle Gay, RN; Surgical Services
“As a charge nurse, Michelle runs a “tight ship.” She gives clear directions and is always willing to jump in and help her coworkers to make things run smoothly. Michelle strives to go above and beyond with her patient care. This is exemplified not only in the day-to-day operations, but she also takes more than her fair share of call shifts. As part of the Surgical Services team, it is always a pleasure to work with Michelle!”

Stewardship: Adam Beardsley; Engineering
“I would like to share with you that Adam Beardsley, who works in Engineering, has saved the hospital a large amount of money. Adam has helped make repairs at Island Health that eliminated contractor and vendor fees saving thousands of dollars. Kudos to Adam!!!”

“This new recognition program is picking up speed and gaining more and more weekly nominations. It has been extremely rewarding to read the nominations each week and recognize the work of our amazing team,” said Island Health CEO Elise Cutter. Island Health is proud to honor these individuals with a formal recognition and monetary award.