Elizabethtown Community Hospital Launches The DAISY Award

Elizabethtown, NY – The University of Vermont Health Network - Elizabethtown Community Hospital today announced the launch of The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nurses, a national nurse recognition program. The announcement was made as part of the hospital’s National Nurses Week celebration.

“The DAISY Award is a nurse recognition program based on what is most personal and meaningful – stories of patient and family gratitude for their extraordinary compassionate care,” said Heather Reynolds, MSN, RN, director of Quality for Elizabethtown Community Hospital. “We’re so pleased to launch this program at ECH during a week dedicated to these extraordinary caregivers.”

The award is part of the DAISY Foundation’s program to recognize the clinical skill and the compassion nurses provide to patients and families every day. The not-for-profit foundation is based in Glen Ellen, CA, and was established by family members in memory of J. Patrick Barnes. Patrick died at the age of 33 in late 1999 from complications of Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP), a little known but not uncommon auto-immune disease. The care Patrick and his family received from nurses while he was ill inspired this unique means of thanking nurses for making a profound difference in the lives of their patients and patient families.

“When Patrick was critically ill, our family experienced first-hand the remarkable skill and care nurses provide patients every day and night,” said Bonnie Barnes, FAAN, President and Co-Founder of The DAISY Foundation. “Yet these unsung heroes are seldom recognized for the super-human work they do. The kind of work the nurses at Elizabethtown Community Hospital are called on to do every day epitomizes the purpose of The DAISY Award.”

Patients, families, and colleagues can nominate nurses at Elizabethtown Community Hospital’s two campuses and six health centers. Awards will be presented twice a year to nurses selected by a committee of their peers. Honorees will receive a certificate commending them as an “Extraordinary Nurse,” a DAISY Award pin, and a beautiful and meaningful sculpture called “A Healer’s Touch,” which is hand-carved by artists of the Shona Tribe in Zimbabwe.

Nomination forms can be found at each of our facilities and online at www.ech.org.

For a complete listing of healthcare organizations currently running the program, please go to http://DAISYfoundation.org.

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About Elizabethtown Community Hospital

The University of Vermont Health Network - Elizabethtown Community Hospital is a designated critical access hospital and the primary health care provider serving the 39,000 residents in Essex County and northern Warren and Washington Counties in New York.

Elizabethtown Community Hospital is transforming rural health care at its main campus in Elizabethtown, NY, at a new emergency department and outpatient center in Ticonderoga, NY, and at six community-based primary health care centers located throughout the region. The hospital is one of the community’s largest employers with 350 employees.

Across the Elizabethtown and Ticonderoga campuses, the hospital maintains two 24-hour emergency rooms, a 25-bed inpatient unit, physical therapy, laboratory, and digital radiology departments, and a variety of specialty physician clinics on a weekly and monthly basis.

Elizabethtown Community Hospital is accredited by the Joint Commission and is licensed and certified by the New York State Department of Health and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

About The University of Vermont Health Network
The University of Vermont Health Network is an academic health system that is comprised of six affiliate hospitals, a multi-specialty medical group, and a home health agency. We serve the residents of Vermont and northern New York with a shared mission: working together, we improve people’s lives. Our partners include:

• The University of Vermont Medical Center
• The University of Vermont Health Network Medical Group
• The University of Vermont Health Network – Alice Hyde Medical Center
• The University of Vermont Health Network – Central Vermont Medical Center
• The University of Vermont Health Network – Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital
• The University of Vermont Health Network – Elizabethtown Community Hospital
• The University of Vermont Health Network – Porter Medical Center
• The University of Vermont Health Network – Home Health and Hospice

Our 4,000 health care professionals are driven to provide high quality, cost-efficient care as close to home as possible. Strengthened by our academic connection to the University of Vermont, each of our hospitals remains committed to its local community by providing compassionate, personal care shaped by the latest medical advances and delivered by highly skilled experts.