Star Awards Shine Spotlight on Home Care’s Best

Last month, the Alliance recognized six outstanding individuals as our 2019 Home Care Stars. These are their stories.

Last month, the Home Care Alliance of Massachusetts gathered the industry at Granite Links in Quincy to honor six amazing individuals who represent the best of home care.

(L-R: Nicole Geddes, Me McBride, Vinette Tyme, Gerry Sanderson, Robin Pelletier, Sandy Hurley)

Since 1989, this fantastic event has celebrated the hard work of individuals and organizations who exemplify home care’s best values. More importantly, awardees are nominated by their colleagues and supervisors; winners are then selected by the Alliance’s Membership Committee.

Here’s a look at this year’s awardees, with excerpts from their nominations:

Me McBride, South Shore VNA, Aide of the Year

Imagine being the family member of a once-strong, determined man whose mind has been crippled by Alzheimer’s. You pray for help, and your prayers are answered in the form of an “earthly angel” named Me McBride.

She enters your home and takes charge with compassion and experience but — most of all — with respect for your loved one. For Me, the patient always comes first.

Vinette Tyme, HouseWorks, Aide of the Year

Vinette is a passionate home health aide, often described by colleagues and clients alike as “a dream” to work with, due to her dedication and exceptional skillset. She has an innate ability to anticipate clients’ needs and form personalized and effective strategies that work for them.

No task is too big or too small for her.

Gerry Sanderson, RN CDP, NVNA and Hospice, Clinician of the Year
Gerry Sanderson, RN CDP

Gerry has cared for hundreds of patients and families in the South Shore and her devotion to her patients is second to none.

Her approachable and positive demeanor is reflected in the way her patients interact with her, creating a safe and nurturing environment for all involved.

Nicole Geddes, LPN, Aberdeen Home Care, Clinician of the Year

Nicole delivers care, no matter what. If there is a need, she is there. She’s a roll-up-your-sleeves nurse, willing to jump-in and help an aide when needed or to manage a crisis in the middle of the night, on a weekend, or on Christmas Day.

She knows what to do and does it with tremendous skill.

Robin Pelletier, RN BSN, Southcoast VNA, Manager of the Year

Robin has successfully led Southcoast VNA’s Supportive Care Center since October 2016, where she guides an interdisciplinary team of 75 people. Her greatest accomplishment has been the extraordinary growth and quality of hospice services, doubling Southcoast’s average daily census and average length of stay.

Sandy Hurley, Commonwealth Clinical Services, Home Care Champion

Sandy embodies everything we value about nursing in the community. She is best known for “doing what needs to be done” from home visits, to setting up clinics, to teaching high school students about healthcare, to playing the piano at just about any function.

This year, Sandy extended her professional talents and skills to the mountains of the Dominican Republic, helping provide over 100 patients a day with health assessments, medications, and critical supplies.

As 2019 comes to a close and the industry prepares for a historic year of changes, the Star Awards allows us to pause and remember the dedicated workforce that makes home care such a success.

Congratulations and thank you to the 2019 Star Award Winners.

Celebrate Your Stars! Nominations are Now Open for Our Time to Shine Innovation & Star Awards!

Celebrate Home Care Month by nominating your best and brightest staff members for the Innovation and Star Awards!

Join us during Home Care Month for the Alliance’s annual celebration of innovation and excellence which will return to the Granite Links Golf Club in Quincy on November 19, 2019.

Nominate your innovative programs and star employees to be recognized during this celebration of the BEST in home care in Massachusetts!

Innovations Awards

The Innovations Awards recognize programs, products, or operational changes that enhance the quality or outcomes of patient care, improve community well-being; drive efficiency in operations within the agency or the health care system; or enhance staff productivity or satisfaction.

Star Awards

The Star Awards celebrate the exceptional accomplishments of the everyday heroes in our midst who make incredible differences in the lives of their patients/clients and their families. A STAR award brings well-deserved recognition for both the agency and the individual.

Nominations are due September 27, 2019!

Thank you for all you do to celebrate excellence at your agency!

Recognizing Heart and Courage – Our Time to Shine 2017

(l-r): Home Care Champions Lisa Burgess, Lauri Medeiros, Susan McCarthy, Angela Ortiz. Far right: Northeast Clinical Services Exec. Director Diane Carrabine.

As is always the case, the annual Our Time to Shine awards ceremony was filled with emotional moments about the challenge-reward dynamic that is working in home care. Our two Home Health Aides of the Year — Gach Clamp of Emerson Hospital Homecare and Nancy Quinlan of Aberdeen Home Care — were both supremely eloquent about the personal family care giving experiences that led them to second careers in home care.

It was, however, our Home Care Champions – the parent-led Massachusetts Pediatric Home Nursing Care Campaign (pictured above) – that really pulled together the story and impact of home care. Campaign founder Angela Ortiz – speaking for fellow parent awardees Lisa Burgess, Sue McCarthy, and Lauri Medeiros – described their campaign to get nursing reimbursement rates from MassHealth raised for the nurses caring for their children.

Angela painted an impassioned picture of the lives of these families, especially when hours of care that are needed and authorized go unfilled. She explained the tremendous family strain, particularly affecting the siblings, and the countless admissions to hospital ICUs. This unnecessary pain and suffering that could be mitigated, she said, with more home nursing support.

Angela wove themes into her talk from her daughter, Ayla’s, favorite movie, The Wizard of Oz, and the love that is the basis of all these families do to care at home for their medically complex children. The hours of work the families have put into the campaign, and the partnership with the agency providers that has formed, serve as a model for any advocacy group. While there is much more relief needed to get the Continuous Skilled Nursing rates to a place where agencies can compete with specialty hospitals for nurses, the state has raised rates by nearly 5% in one year, a direct result of this tireless campaign.

When the parents show the courage to stand up at a hearing to tell their story and they are fueled – said Angela – by the message behind Dorothy’s journey “There is no place like home.”

We couldn’t agree more, Angela. Congratulations: It’s an honor to work with you.

2017 Star Award Winners

Gach Clamp Nancy Quinlan David Ahern Carlton Jorge David Prybyla
Gach Clamp Nancy Quinlan David Ahearn Carlton Jorge David Prybyla
— Aides of the Year — — Clinicians of the Year — Physician of the Year
Emerson Hospital Homecare Aberdeen Home Care Baystate Home Health Community Nurse Home Care Orthopaedics Surgical Associations

 

Arline McKenzie Susan Proulx-Galster Rep. Aaron Vega
Arline McKenzie Susan Proulx-Galster Rep. Aaron Vega
— Managers of the Year — Legislator of the Year
Walpole Area VNA Circle Home (D-5th Hampden)

For more on the awardees, go here.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

2017 Star Awards, Innovation Showcase Winners Announced!

The Home Care Alliance of Massachusetts is pleased to announce its 2017 industry innovators and stars. Awardees will be celebrated during the Innovations Showcase & Star Awards on June 20 at the Granite Links Golf Club, Quincy.

The 2017 honorees include:


Aides of the Year

Gach Clamp, HHA, Emerson Hospital Homecare, Concord

Nancy Quinlan, CNA/HHA, Aberdeen Home Care, Danvers


Clinicians of the Year

David Ahearn, MSW, Baystate Home Health, Springfield

Carlton Jorge, RN, Community Nurse Home Care, Fairhaven


Managers of the Year

Arline McKenzie, Nursing Manager, Walpole Area VNA

Susan Proulx-Galster, Hospice & Palliative Care Program Manager, Circle Home, Lowell


Physician of the Year

David Prybyla, MD, Orthopaedics Surgical Associates, North Chelmsford


Home Care Champion

MA Pediatric Home Nursing Care Campaign


Legislator of the Year

Representative Aaron Vega (D-Holyoke)


Innovation Winners

HouseWorks, Newton:  Instant Hire Event

Southcoast VNA, Fairhaven:  Camp Angel Wings

Brockton VNA:  Lean Process Management


These awards celebrate the exceptional accomplishments of the everyday heroes in our midst who make incredible differences in the lives of their patients/clients and their families. Though there are too few opportunities to recognize all who deserve one, a STAR award brings well-deserved recognition for both the agency and the individuals.

Granite Links
Granite Links Golf Club

Please join us on June 20 as we salute and celebrate the best programs and people in our industry today!

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

Our Time to Shine: Innovation & Star Award, Nominations Now Open!

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The Alliance’s annual celebration of innovation and excellence will return to the Granite Links Golf Club in Quincy on June 20, 2017. As always, invitations to attend will be sent to a broad health care audience.

Together, we can celebrate our people and our pioneers and recognize what our awardees and member agencies: make life better for our thousands of patients and their families. In celebrating individual achievement, we shine a light on our collective accomplishments.

Two Opportunities to Shine:

  • Nominate a program, product, or operational change that has: A) Enhanced the well-being of patients, clients, or the community, B) Driven efficiency in operations or the health care system, or C) Enhanced the productivity or satisfaction of agency staff.
  • Nominate an employee or homecare supporter for a STAR Award. These awards celebrate the exceptional accomplishments of the everyday heroes in our midst who make incredible differences in the lives of their patients/clients and their families. Though there are too few opportunities to recognize all who deserve one, a STAR award brings with it some well-deserved recognition for both the agency and the individual.

Ways to Nominate:

Email/Fax/Mail: Fill out our hard-copy nomination form and submit to:

Tim Burgers
75 Kneeland St., Ste. 709
Boston, MA 02111
Fx: (617) 426-05109
tburgers@thinkhomecare.org

Nominations may be made by Alliance agencies, their patients, or their partner organizations and are due by April 14, 2017.

Final selections will be made by the Alliance’s Membership & Awards Ceremony Committee. Each winner will be invited to attend the ceremony as guest of the Alliance, along with the person who nominated him/her, as well as three additional guests.

Please join us in this opportunity to celebrate and honor our industry innovators and our “STARs.”

The 2017 Aide and Clinician of the Year will be honored on the covers of our 2018 directories.

Innovations Awards

The Innovations Awards recognize programs, products, or operational changes that enhance patient, client, or community, well-being; drive efficiency in operations or the health care system’; enhance staff productivity or satisfaction.

Star Awards

The Star Awards celebrate the exceptional accomplishments of the everyday heroes in our midst who make incredible differences in the lives of their patients/clients and their families. Though there are too few opportunities to recognize all who deserve one, a STAR award brings well-deserved recognition for both the agency and the individual.

For more information on Our Time to Shine go to www.thinkhomecare.org/shine

 

 

2016 “Our Time to Shine” Innovation & Star Awards a Success!

HCA-assets(1)The Home Care Alliance of MA hosted their Annual “Our Time to Shine” event on Tuesday, June 14, 2016 at the Granite Links Golf Club in Quincy, MA. With 10 Star Award winners, 3 Innovation winners, and over 150 in attendance it was a great day to celebrate home care!

*Preview just some of the pictures for the event below. More photos to come!*

Congratulations to our winners:

 

Clinicians of the Year:
Anne Luippold, RN, BSN, ONC, Salmon VNA & Hospice, Milford
Michelle Michaud, RN, Circle Home Care, Lowell
Mary NDegwa, RN, Comfort Home Care, Methuen

Aide of the Year:
Jane Rizza, Home Care Inc., (Home Health VNA), Westwood

Leadership & Collaboration Award:
Roxanna Harper & Jo Ann Wagner, Baystate VNA & Hospice, Springfield

Manager of the Year:
Darlene Connolly, RN, Steward Home Care, Lawrence

Physician of the Year:
Dr. David Green, Emerson Hospital Home Care, Concord

Legislator of the Year:
Senator Barbara L’Italien, D-Andover

Home Care Champion:
Meg Doherty, NVNA & Hospice, Norwell

Innovation in Staff Development:
Comfort Home Care, Psychiatric Nursing Board Certification Program

Innovation in Patient Care Deliver:
Partners Health Care at Home, Mobile Observation Unit

Commitment to an Innovation Culture:
South Shore Hospital Home Care Department, The MakerNurse Project

Here’s just a preview of pictures from this great event!

HCA’s 2014 Clinician of the Year Begins a New Tradition

2014 Clinician of the Year is our Resource Guide Cover Girl!

In what will be a new Home Care Association of MA tradition, our 2015 Home Health Resource Directory features on the cover our 2014 Clinician of the Year.  She is  Pauline Knight, RN, Hospice Nurse, Circle Home, Inc., Lowell.  Pauline was recognized last April at our Annual Innovations and Star Awards ceremony. Nominations are open for this year’s awards.   Maybe your nurse or therapist could be make our 2016 cover.  For nomination and event information, go here.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

Nominations Extended for Innovations Showcase & Star Awards

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The Home Care Alliance of MA is planning a special afternoon to honor and showcase the best people and programs in our industry today at a gala celebration of innovation and excellence on Tuesday, April 29, at the historic John F. Kennedy Library.  

This event offers member agencies two opportunities to shine:

  1. Nominate a program, product, or operational change that has either a) enhanced the well-being of patients, clients, or the community, b) driven efficiency in operations or the health care system, or c) enhanced the productivity or satisfaction of agency staff.
  2. Nominate an employee or homecare supporter for a STAR Award. These awards celebrate the exceptional accomplishments of the everyday heroes in our midst who make incredible differences in the lives of their patients/clients and their families. Though there are too few opportunities to recognize all who deserve one, a STAR award brings with it some well-deserved recognition for both the agency and the individual.

Nominations may be made by Alliance agencies, their patients, or their partner organizations.  Download & complete the nomination form to let the world know about your best & brightest. The deadline to submit your nominations has been extended to March 14, 2014.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

Innovations & Star Award Nominations Open

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Once again, the Alliance is planning a special afternoon to honor and showcase the best people and programs in our industry today. This celebration of innovation and excellence will take place on April 29th at the historic John F. Kennedy Library.  Invitations to attend will be sent to a broad health care audience.

This event offers member agencies two opportunities to shine:

  1. Nominate a program, product, or operational change that has either a) enhanced the well-being of patients, clients, or the community, b) driven efficiency in operations or the health care system, or c) enhanced the productivity or satisfaction of agency staff.
  2. Nominate an employee or homecare supporter for a STAR Award. These awards celebrate the exceptional accomplishments of the everyday heroes in our midst who make incredible differences in the lives of their patients/clients and their families. Though there are too few opportunities to recognize all who deserve one, a STAR award brings with it some well-deserved recognition for both the agency and the individual.

Nominations may be made by Alliance agencies, their patients, or their partner organizations.  Download & complete the nomination form to let the world know about your best & brightest.  Nominations are due by March 7, 2014.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.

Congratulations to the 2013 Star Award Winners

Each year, the Home Care Alliance of Massachusetts honors the best and brightest in caregiving and home care management. This video of the 2013 winners played at our award ceremony on May 1, 2013.

Return to www.thinkhomecare.org.