Swedish Medical Center Nurses Receive The DAISY Award

  Swedish Medical Center Nurses Receive The DAISY Award

  * The DAISY Foundation, Swedish and UnitedHealthcare host award ceremony
    Wednesday, Dec. 5
  * Eight Swedish Medical Center nurses to receive award; 44 previous
    award-winners honored
  * Swedish celebrates five years of honoring nurses for delivering quality
    and compassionate care
  * The DAISY Award now given at more than 1,260 hospitals nationwide

Business Wire

SEATTLE -- December 05, 2012

Eight Swedish Medical Center nurses will receive The DAISY Award for
Extraordinary Nurses, a national program established by The DAISY Foundation
to recognize nurses who deliver quality and compassionate care.

The nurses will receive their awards at a special ceremony at Swedish’s Cherry
Hill campus on Wednesday.

             The ceremony will take place Dec. 5, 2012 at 10 a.m.
           Cherry Hill campus; 500 17^th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98122
        Education Conference Center (James Tower, first floor, Room C)

Swedish Medical Center will celebrate five years of presenting The DAISY
Award, and UnitedHealthcare will announce its continued support for the
program at Swedish’s five hospital campuses (First Hill, Cherry Hill, Ballard,
Edmonds and Issaquah) as well as its two ambulatory care clinics in Mill Creek
and Redmond.

Special guests at the ceremony will include The DAISY Foundation co-founders
Mark and Bonnie Barnes and UnitedHealthcare Northwest Region CEO David Hansen.
In addition to announcing the eight new winners, Swedish will honor its past
44 award recipients, all of whom have exemplified the tenets of the DAISY
Award: social responsibility, service excellence, ethical behavior, safe
patient care, quality care and continual education.*

“Nurses are a vital resource in today’s health-care system; they are the
healthcare professionals on the frontline who spend the most time with
patients and whose role is pivotal in helping people live with illness and
live healthier lives,” said Hansen. “UnitedHealthcare is grateful for the
opportunity to join with Swedish Medical Center today to honor DAISY Award
winners past and present for their extraordinary, compassionate care and
commitment.”

*Excerpts taken from nomination form – please do not release names until post
ceremony.

  * Crystal Nguyen, RN, Swedish Physicians Factoria primary care clinic (hire
    date: 2010; Lynnwood resident)
    Crystal juggles triage duties, medication refills, staff training and
    mentoring, ordering medical supplies and medication, and much, much more
    with patient care. She demonstrates such compassion and respect with the
    patients that they often tell me what a wonderful experience they just had
    with her.

  * Liliya Bondarenko, RN, Swedish/First Hill (hire date: 2006; Bothell
    resident)
    We could not manage this vulnerable population (geriatrics) without
    Liliya's invaluable daily assistance. Recently, one of our patients with
    advanced dementia…was taken to the Emergency Department (ED) at an outside
    hospital in respiratory distress. The outside hospital was unable to get
    in touch with the patient's daughter, who was traveling out of state. When
    the ED called my office for records, Liliya recognized immediately that
    urgent action was called for. This was a patient with advanced directives
    and a POLST form that clearly specified the focus of her care should be on
    comfort. Liliya was able to recognize the acuity of the situation, locate
    and send the relevant documents from the medical record to the outside
    hospital, and reach the patient's daughter on her cell phone to confirm
    her wishes for her mother, all within about 15 minutes. The patient's
    family was immensely grateful that their mother was not made to suffer
    needlessly; she transferred home with hospice and died peacefully several
    days later. As a geriatrician, I am unbelievably grateful that someone
    like Liliya is here to look out for my patients, even when I cannot. We
    could not do this work without her.

  * Summer Vandam, RN, Swedish/Ballard (hire date: 2010; Sand Point-area
    resident)
    Summer is an amazing team player. She goes above and beyond for patients,
    and will do whatever she can do to make sure that all patients get the
    best care possible. Summer always tries to secure a good foundation for
    safety for patients, and is always keeping their health and wellness in
    mind.

  * Troy Cavanaugh, RN, Swedish/Ballard (hire date: 2007; West Seattle
    resident)
    One of Troy’s most inspiring clinical experiences was when he was working
    in a hospital with no perinatal services. On one particular evening he was
    working in the ED, a car pulled up to the ambulance entrance with a mother
    in the final stages of labor. Troy delivered the boy, directed the other
    staff to find the never used infant warmer and created the environment
    that resulted in both patients doing very well. The exceptional part of
    this story is Troy’s calm under fire and his ability to direct his team
    through this unusual and stressful situation.

  * Glenda Butler, RN, Swedish/Ballard (hire date: 2010)
    Glenda's role in the ED is often as the charge nurse. She runs the floor
    with ease and confidence. She works hard and expects those around her to
    do the same. When you work with her you feel supported and she instills in
    her colleagues the desire to work hard and as a team. As a patient you
    would feel very fortunate to have Glenda be your nurse. An example of her
    not missing the small things is her recently taking on the role of
    providing toys and trinkets for the pediatric population we care for in
    the ED. She reminds us daily the importance of reaching out and lending a
    helping hand, recognizing the positive attributes of our colleagues and is
    constantly thinking of new ways to improve on employee and patient
    satisfaction.

  * Eric Stevenson, RN, Swedish/First Hill (hire date: 2011; NE Seattle-area
    resident)
    Patients and their families describe his caring and compassion, and his
    love for his profession. A patient in ICU was about to be transferred and
    she said that while she does not remember Eric because she was critically
    ill, her family told her about how amazing Eric was and how he saved her
    life through a very anxious time for them. They all said they wish all of
    the nurses were like Eric. They said that you cannot teach the caring that
    he displayed- it is just who he is and it is priceless.

  * Jacqueline Armstrong, RN, Swedish/Cherry Hill (hire date: 2002; Bellevue
    resident)
    When she is in the charge nurse role, she is able to guide the unit in a
    calm and confident manner. Her critical thinking, problem solving and
    communication skills give a sense of control and peace to the unit. In her
    role as preceptor she guides new grads in the development of their
    clinical and professional skills. She seems to intuitively know when to
    offer more support or push for more independence. She incorporates all the
    concepts of rehab nursing into her clinical practice. She is able to
    motivate patients to do for themselves; her patient and family teaching is
    delivered in a way that learners can understand and is focused on
    a successful discharge, she is a true team player who is respected by
    therapists and physicians."

  * Millie Cunningham, RN, Swedish/Issaquah (hire date: 2000; Bellevue
    resident)
    Millie is an extraordinary nurse. She can handle the most complex cases,
    physically or psychologically. She is a team player and very energetic.
    Her goals are to safely and efficiently care for all the patients and
    maintain the unit. We could use more staff nurses like Millie. I cannot
    say enough kind words about her. I am glad that she has been a mentor to
    me and I have learned so much from her in just the short time that I have
    worked at Issaquah campus and I have been a nurse for over 31 years.

About The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses

Seattle native Mark Barnes and his wife Bonnie spent their careers working as
advertising and marketing executives. In 1999, Mark’s son Patrick, 33,
developed the auto-immune disease Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia Purpura (ITP).
Pat and his wife Tena had given birth to the family’s first grandchild six
weeks prior to his illness.

Patrick was treated at a Swedish cancer research center and passed away at
Swedish in November 1999. The not-for-profit DAISY Foundation (DAISY is an
acronym for Diseases Attacking the Immune System) was established by family
members in his memory. The care Barnes and his family received over his
eight-week hospitalization inspired this unique means of thanking nurses for
making a difference in the lives of their patients and patients’ families.

“When Patrick was ill, we were awed by the skill, care and compassion he – and
we, his family – received,” said Bonnie Barnes. “We created The DAISY Award
for Extraordinary Nurses to say thank you to nurses around the country, as we
believe they are truly ‘unsung heroes.’ We also want to thank UnitedHealthcare
for helping us acknowledge the remarkable work nurses do every day, and
Swedish Medical Center for its tremendous support over the years.”

Each month, nurses in more than 1,260 participating hospitals across the
United States are nominated by their colleagues and patients to receive The
DAISY Award. The honorees receive a certificate commending outstanding
clinical care and a designation of being an ‘Extraordinary Nurse.’ The
certificate reads: “In deep appreciation of all you do, who you are, and the
incredibly meaningful difference you make in the lives of so many people.” The
honorees are also given a sculpture called A Healer’s Touch, hand-carved by
artists of the Shona Tribe in Africa.

Swedish joins 104 other medical centers where The DAISY Award is sponsored by
UnitedHealthcare. UnitedHealthcare has committed more than $166,000 in support
of The DAISY Foundation since 2006.

About The DAISY Foundation
The not-for-profit DAISY Foundation is based in Glen Ellen, Calif., and was
established in 2000 by family members in memory of J. Patrick Barnes. The
DAISY Foundation supports the nursing profession with recognition programs for
bedside nurses and nursing faculty and with grants for research and
evidence-based practice projects conducted by nurses. As of December 2011,
more than 20,000 nurses at over 1,260 hospitals have been recognized with The
DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses. More information is available at
www.DAISYfoundation.org.

About UnitedHealthcare
UnitedHealthcare is dedicated to helping people nationwide live healthier
lives by simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and
wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care providers. The
company offers the full spectrum of health benefit programs for individuals,
employers and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and contracts directly with
more than 650,000 physicians and care professionals and 5,000 hospitals
nationwide. UnitedHealthcare serves more than 38 million people and is one of
the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified Fortune 50
health and well-being company.

About Swedish
Founded in 1910, Swedish is the largest non-profit health provider in the
Greater Seattle area. It is comprised of five hospital campuses (First Hill,
Cherry Hill, Ballard, Edmonds and Issaquah); ambulatory care centers in
Redmond and Mill Creek; and Swedish Medical Group, a network of more than 100
primary-care and specialty clinics located throughout the Greater Puget Sound
area. In addition to general medical and surgical care including
robotic-assisted surgery, Swedish is known as a regional referral center,
providing specialized treatment in areas such as cardiovascular care, cancer
care, neuroscience, orthopedics, high-risk obstetrics, pediatric specialties,
organ transplantation and clinical research. For more information, visit
www.swedish.org, www.swedishcares.org, www.facebook.com/swedishmedicalcenter,
or www.twitter.com/swedish.

Contact:

Green Rubino (for UnitedHealthcare/The DAISY Foundation)
Hamilton McCulloh, 206-957-4260
or
Swedish
Ed Boyle, 206-386-2748
Ed.Boyle@swedish.org