Recognition Events, A Remembrance, A Farewell

This was a great week at GBMC.  On Wednesday night we held our annual Employee Recognition Dinner at Valley Mansion where more than 500 of our GBMC family members were recognized for their service to the organization.

This year, we were privileged to recognize two employees who’ve been with GBMC for at least 45 years. Chestina Chambers, an OR Support Assistant in the  PACU, started with us in October 1966 and will be celebrating 46 years of dedicated service next month.  Pamela Reed, a cytotechnologist, earlier this month celebrated her 45th anniversary at GBMC.

Our vision is for a system that gets everyone better health with better care at lower cost with more joy for those providing the care.  The starting point of reaching our vision is engaged employees.  We will never get to our vision, no matter how smart the ideas are, if our people are not engaged and don’t believe in where our company is going.

This week’s dinner was a reminder that we have so many people who have invested so much of their lives with us, which is really a gift. At the very least, once a year we need to reach out and thank them and celebrate them.  It’s also an opportunity for them to reflect on all of the people who they’ve helped in their career, either directly or indirectly.  That’s a great legacy.

In addition to Chestina and Pamela, five employees were recognized for 40 years of service to GBMC: Norma Butts - a nurse support tech in Unit 48 – Surgery; Mary Hoover – a nurse in the Wound Care Center;  Betty Jackson – anesthesia technician; Cindy Kahl – a patient service assistant in the Pediatric Associates practice; and Annette Williams, a medical technologist in the lab.

We also celebrated 12 employees with 35 years of service; 10 with 30 years; 32 with 25 years; 24 with 20; 52 with 15; 97 with 10; and 275 colleagues who have been with GBMC for 5 years.

To all of our employees - our patients, their loved ones, and your colleagues owe a special appreciation for all you do.

On Thursday evening, Dr. Julie Freischlag, Chair of Surgery at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, gave the first annual Peter J. Golueke, M.D. Memorial Lecture. Friends of Dr. Golueke, our past Chief of Vascular Surgery who died last year, raised the funds for this lecture to remember his wonderful work at GBMC. Members of Dr. Golueke’s  family were present including his wife, his sons, and his daughter Erin who spoke at the event and reminded us that she had helped raise the money by baking and selling cupcakes at her school. It is important that a family reflect on the contributions of its members who have passed on. Peter was an excellent physician, colleague, and leader at GBMC.

On Friday morning, we said farewell at a retirement reception in the cafeteria to Ceola Tabron, who worked in environmental services at GBMC for 41 years. Ceola will be missed for her hard work and dedication but also for her infectious smile. She told me of her plans in retirement to do some travelling and visit friends and family. She told me that she was proud that only one snow storm had prevented her from getting to work in all her 41 years!

After the reception for Ceola, I travelled to the Sheraton Towson for our annual Volunteer Celebration Luncheon. We celebrated the work of volunteers both at our Medical Center and also at Gilchrist Hospice Care. I learned that in addition to the thousands of hours of service at GBMC there are approximately 400 active volunteers at Gilchrist who contributed over 28,000 patient care hours in fiscal 2012.  Of that number over 2,000 hours were devoted to the end of life doula program and about 9,000 hours were dedicated to serving patients in our two inpatient units in Towson and in Howard County. What a tremendous gift of service to GBMC, Gilchrist, and our patients.

It was a long week of celebrating, remembering and saying thank you. This is a necessary part of the life of the GBMC family.