Recognition Program Builds Off an Exciting First Year
Nominate a Healthcare Hero
Only a few minutes into the first meeting of an advisory board created by BusinessWest and its sister publication, BusinessWest, to provide needed insight as they launched a new recognition program called Healthcare Heroes, the expected question was put forward.
“How do you define that word ‘hero?’ asked one of the panel’s members, addressing the magazines’ decision makers.
The reply, and we’re paraphrasing here, was something to the effect of ‘how we define ‘hero’ is not important — it’s how you define it.’
And by ‘you,’ Kate Campiti, associate publisher of the two publications, essentially meant anyone who would nominate an individual or group to be named a Healthcare Hero in one of seven categories that first year.
Those who did so came up with their own definitions, used to highlight the nominations of a unique class of individuals and groups that would include Sr. Mary Caritas, SP, former president of Mercy Medical Center, in the Lifetime Achievement category; Dr. Michael Willers, owner of the Children’s Heart Center, in the Patient/Resident/Client Care Provider category; Dr. Andrew Dobin, an ICU surgeon, in the Innovation in Health/Wellness category; and the Healthy Hill Initiative in the Collaboration in Health/Wellness category.
“Generally, ‘hero’ means someone or some group that stands out and stands above others in their profession, in their service to others, and in the way their passion for helping those in need is readily apparent,” Campiti said. “And we saw this in our first class of honorees. If there was one word that defined all of them, beyond ‘hero,’ it was ‘passion.’”
A panel of judges will be looking for that same passion as they weigh nominees for the class of 2018.
Nominations are currently being accepted, and will be until the end of the day on June 15. Nomination forms can be found on both publications’ websites — www.businesswest.com and www.healthcarenews.com.
Nominations are being accepted in the following categories:
- Patient/Resident/Client Care Provider
- Innovation in Health/Wellness
- Community Health
- Emerging Leader
- Collaboration in Health/Wellness
- Health/Wellness Administration/Administrator
- Lifetime Achievement
Those nominating individuals and groups are urged to make their submissions detailed and specific, giving the judges who will review them all the information they need.
The honorees will be chosen this summer and profiled in the Sept. 4 edition of BusinessWest and the September edition of BusinessWest.
The Heroes will then be honored at a gala set for Oct. 25 at the Starting Gate at GreatHorse in Hampden.
Rounding out the class of 2017 are:
• Lifetime Achievement: Sister Mary Caritas, SP;
• Patient/Resident/Client Care Provider: Dr. Michael Willers, owner of the Children’s Heart Center of Western Massachusetts;
• Emerging Leader: Erin Daley, RN, BSN, director of the Emergency Department at Mercy Medical Center;
• Health/Wellness Administrator/Administration: Holly Chaffee, RN, BSN, MSN, president and CEO of Porchlight VNA/Home Care;
• Community Health: Molly Senn-McNally, Continuity Clinic director for the Baystate Pediatric Residency Program;
• Innovation in Health/Wellness: Dr. Andrew Doben, director of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit at Baystate Medical Center;
• Innovation in Health/Wellness: Genevieve Chandler, associate professor of Nursing at UMass Amherst; and
• Collaboration in Healthcare: The Healthy Hill Initiative.
For more information on Healthcare Heroes, visit www.businesswest.com or www.healthcarenews.com.
