Make Medicine Better

Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital employees went above and beyond to take care of patients, families and each other during the winter storm of Jan. 31 and Feb. 1. More than 80 employees stayed overnight those two nights to make sure patients received great care. "The dedication and enthusiasm of our employees and physicians was commendable," says Larry Tracy, BJWCH chief operating officer. They went above and beyond to take exceptional care of our patients, their families and each other." Special thanks was sent to: BJWCH nurse managers Jim Murphy, RN, Elizabeth Heidt, RN, and Mika Walters, RN, and assistant nurse managers Lisa Cook, RN, Holly Stephens, RN, and house supervisor Deb Brandt, RN, who slept on cots so staff could have beds. Marianne Fournie, RN, chief nurse executive, who served as incident commander, and as "house mom," spending two nights at the hospital during the storm of Feb. 1 and 2. Perioperative services staff including Sherry Mathern, who stayed to cover endoscopy cases so that one of her "on-call" staff could stay home; Georgia Thomas, who stayed to cover PACU call for herself, and took another staff member's call for a second night so that she would not have to come in; LeighAnn Schmidt, who voluntarily took circulator call for three nights and two days and stayed at the hospital; Karen Vaughn, who volunteered to take endoscopy call for three nights and two days and stayed at the hospital; DeAnna King, who came in to the hospital on Tuesday morning when she was not on-call to cover OR Tech. call for Tuesday and Wednesday and stayed overnight Tuesday. In addition, she covered CS and worked until almost 8 p.m., Tuesday, to ensure there were sterile instruments for cases on Thursday morning. Clarice Brown and Kathy Enloe, patient registration, who came in on their day off on Feb. 1 because they knew BJWCH needed coverage. They were proactive, bringing overnight bags in case they needed to stay. Plant Engineering staff including Mike Morrison, John Davis, Robert Vandergriff, Steve Quinn and Scott Walter and Dennis Mullen, who committed themselves to hours of snow and ice removal while still maintaining the hospital for patients, families and staff. Housekeeping staff including Blanche Graves, Dorothy Burns, Ellen Chappell, Burhan Hysa, Travis Bramlet, who voluntarily filled in for staff who couldn't make it in. The housekeeping staff stayed and worked through the entire storm.