OHSU’s ROSE (Recognizing Outstanding Service Excellence) Award program celebrates employees, students and volunteers who provide outstanding service beyond the normal scope of their jobs.

Meet the recipients from our most recent virtual ROSE Award ceremony and learn why they were nominated below!

Red ROSE Award recipients

Sydney Deal, R.N., OHSU Doernbecher Specialty Pediatrics Clinic
Sydney is a new member of the CF Clinic and she has embraced her role within this tight-knit community seamlessly. One big challenge that she took on was ensuring that those who were eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine were given all the tools possible to get it. She made appointments for families, coordinated dates/times, searched throughout the state for open appointments and developed a wealth of information. She also gave her own time to volunteer at mass vaccination sites throughout Portland. One very inspirational moment was with a CF family of one of our more ill patients whose mom had been turned away at a mass vaccination site due to lack of identification and immigration status. Sydney knew that this patient was waiting on a double organ transplant and needed to be protected from COVID-19 infection at all costs, so she worked non-stop to find another appointment for that mom and ensured that their entire family received their vaccinations. Much to our delight, that patient was able to receive his double organ transplant this week and is reassured that his family can safely visit him afterward since they are vaccinated. This is just one of many examples of Sydney’s compassion and dedication.

Amy Stone, R.N., Pre-Surgical Unit
Amy was pre-oping a patient for a procedure in the South OR. This patient was scheduled to have a gastrointestinal procedure with a direct administration of medication to help resolve a chronic and debilitating issue that was preventing them from being able to eat safely or comfortably. While she was readying the patient, she discovered that the patient’s insurance had not authorized the use of medication in her procedure. Further investigation showed that at the time of scheduling the clinic had inadvertently left off that critical component of the request to the insurer. The patient was devastated and virtually inconsolable. When this was discovered by the procedural team, it was clear there was no point in performing the GI component of the procedure without the actual medication available to inject. Most people would have taken that at face value and moved on to the next task at hand. But Amy didn’t. She initiated an impromptu huddle with the OR nurse and the provider team on how we might be able to find a creative way to care for this patient. She created a space where all possible paths were discussed and explored and even when she continued to hear “no,” she continued to push for a “yes” for this patient. Ultimately, Amy’s tenacity, escalation and advocacy paid off and the right approvals were received to move forward with the patient procedure. I have never seen a patient move from despair to joy so quickly. Thank you, Amy!

Team Award: Anna Evans, R.N., Kao Her, R.N., Devin Fleming, R.N., Operating Rooms
I am one of the orthopedic surgeons here at OHSU and one specific surgery that I perform is called a periacetabular osteotomy (PAO). This involves cutting the acetabulum from the pelvic and reorienting it in space to treat young adolescent patients (usually 15-30) with developmental dysplasia of the hip. I do these surgeries with my partner Dr. Thomas Huff. Often these patients are in high school or college and arrange their whole lives around doing the surgery in the summer or around other vacations from school or university. With the current capacity issues, we had to cancel two of these surgeries about a month ago. These are very difficult to logistically schedule with multiple surgeons, etc., and these two patients would have had to wait likely until next year to do the surgery, causing significant delays in care, as well as pain and disability. But last Friday we were able to do four PAOs (double what we normally do in one day) in two OR rooms due to the work done by Anna Evans, Kao Her and Devin Fleming. We only have two complete trays of equipment for these cases. Anna, Kao and Devin pieced through pans of old equipment and spend days preparing a third makeshift tray, arranging staff and sterile processing for the day. Everything went perfectly and we were able to get these young patients the surgery without having a significant delay. Anna, Kao and Devin went above and beyond to ensure these young patients were able to safely have their surgeries in a timely fashion despite the current OHSU capacity issues.

Team Award: Secia Beier, Lisa Postlewaite, Manager, Kristara Duran, Pharmacy Technician, Pharmacy Services
Secia Beier has been a model pharmacist in the rheumatology clinic during the COVID-19 pandemic. She has remained flexible in her care for patients and steadfast in her support for providers. Recently, a drug called tocilizumab became in shortage due to increased use in treating hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Unfortunately, tocilizumab IV is also a medication standardly used to treat some rheumatology patients, so the shortage has impacted the treatment of these patients. Secia jumped into action assisted the rheumatologists in switching patients to alternative formulations and alternative medications. Without hesitation, Secia worked with providers on preemptively creating letters of medical necessities to plead their case to grant approval for alternative formulations and off-label alternative medications. This greatly decreased delays in getting patients alternative treatments and prevented flares in their conditions. Additionally, Lisa Postlewaite, Pharmacy Operations Manager, jumped in without hesitation while covering my vacation. She helped set up a process to expedite prior authorizations for patients needing urgent transitioning to alternative formulations or medications from tocilizumab IV. She also was very active in interfacing with the pharmacy supply chain to ensure ongoing supply availability for the alternatives. Kristara Duran is a pharmacy technician in the OHSU Specialty Call Center who usually does not assist with completing prior authorizations for the rheumatology clinic. Kristara is an exemplary team player and went above and beyond. She stepped in during this time-sensitive situation and prioritized completing the urgent prior authorizations for these patients. With Secia’s guidance, Kristara was able to successfully obtain approval for medications in record time to prevent treatment delays for these rheumatology patients. Due to the extraordinary efforts of Secia, Lisa and Kristara, the risk to patient care posed by the tocilizumab IV shortage was mitigated as best as possible. This is a model example of how OHSU continues to adapt and continue to provide excellent care to patients during the pandemic.

Golden ROSE Award recipients

Jessielito Infante, Technician, Environmental Services
I was sitting down at the third-floor cafeteria finishing my lunch when I noticed something happening at the cashier location within eye/earshot of where I was sitting. I noticed that Jessielito had just paid for his food and was carrying it on a lunch tray while speaking to a hospital visitor who was in line behind him. He asked the visitor if he was okay and if he needed help. The visitor appeared to be out of sorts and disoriented. Jessielito noticed that and set his food down to get him a chair. He asked staff members to call Rapid Response to get the visitor some help. Jessielito went above and beyond even as others didn’t even seem to notice anything was going on. He stayed with the visitor until help arrived, then calmly went back to his (now cold) lunch. At that moment, I felt an overwhelming sense of pride at being part of this institution having the fortune to work alongside individuals like Jessielito. He has worked here for a very long time and I cannot think of a person here who better exemplifies what we stand for at OHSU.

Jamie Pinney, R.N., Medical ICU
Jamie has been a MICU nurse through all of covid. I would assume that, like his colleagues, he is exhausted and emotionally worn down. However, in recently working with Jamie, it wasn’t evident that he’s had a hard year. He exhibited the most outstanding human compassion I have witnessed in a long time. I am a social worker on the bone marrow transplant team. Two of my young patients, both parents of young children, died in the ICU in the past two weeks. These patients (and myself) were lucky that Jamie was their nurse. Jamie showed absolute compassion and commitment, as he spoke to the 16-year-old son of one of the patients, encouraging him to stay with his dad during his last moments and not to let other family dynamics get in the way of him being there for his father’s death. The next day, after the patient passed, the son told his mother that Jamie was his hero and that his interaction with him had profoundly impacted him for the rest of his life. In caring for another young female patient, Jamie worked an extra overtime day, away from his own children at home, to be with this young woman as her own children said goodbye to her. He worked diligently to make sure the patient’s symptoms were controlled so her young children see her comfortable for their goodbyes. He allowed multiple family members to have time with her, and he treated this longtime and beloved BMT patient with absolute dignity and love in her last days. All patients at OHSU deserve Jamie as a nurse. Thank you, Jamie, for your tireless work with COVID-19 patients in the COVID ICU over the past year, and also for your amazing, kind, heartwarming and life-changing work with the BMT patients in the ICU.

Team Award: Clare McBride, R.N., Pediatric ICU, Patricia Edge, Social Worker, Care Management
Asking suicide screening questions is often incredibly difficult, especially when you’re asking a young pediatric patient. We have learned time and time again the importance of screening every patient that comes into our hospital because early intervention is what helps keep our patients safe and facilitates contact with the services and resources they may need. A 12-year-old patient was admitted to the Pediatric ICU around 6 a.m. Clare, our Rapid Response nurse, was responsible for admitting this patient because she was the only nurse left without a patient assignment. The PICU had “exploded” and the nurses admitted six patients overnight, so every nurse was stretched. Despite her shift ending at 7 a.m., Clare took the time to ask the patient admission questions, including the suicide screening tool ASQ. When giving me a report to assume care of this patient, Clare mentioned that the patient had a positive ASQ. While this patient wasn’t imminently at risk for suicidal ideation or attempt, the patient was what we consider a non-acute positive. Based on the hard work of our behavioral health SPL and all the work that has gone into the care of behavioral health patients, anyone who scores a non-acute positive requires a social work consult. I was so impressed with Clare that she took the time to screen this patient in the short window of time she assumed care of the patient. Not only did she complete the admission requirements, but Clare also informed me of the action items as a result of this screening. There were many other tasks Clare could have been completing as the Rapid Response nurse for the PICU, but this is what she chose to do for the patient’s care. Due to the acuity and staffing needs in the PICU, as soon as the patient had transitioned out of DKA and met discharge criteria, they needed to be discharged. We were at capacity and unable to admit additional patients until this patient left. I reached out to Patricia Edge, our weekend social worker, to alert her that the patient had a positive ASQ and would need the social work consult before discharging. Patricia called to say that she was incredibly busy but would do her best to come by the unit. I told Patricia that I was trying to get the patient discharged and home by 3 p.m.. Patricia walked through the PICU doors around 2 p.m. and was able to meet with the patient. The patient was able to connect with Patricia and obtain resources to send home with the patient. Patricia expressed gratitude that our team notified her of the positive screening so she could provide early intervention. She said, “this is exactly why screening is so important; we caught this patient early and we can provide intervention and support.” The teamwork exhibited in the PICU was wonderful to see. Because of the diligence of our bedside nurse Clare, and Patricia’s dedication to the top priorities, we were able to provide exceptional care to this patient before their discharge.

Know someone at OHSU who deserves recognition? Nominate them for a ROSE Award!