St. Bernards Medical Center has a number of events
and activities planned during National Hospital Week, May 7-11.
The national observance was begun in 1921 and is a
time when hospitals recognize their staff and volunteers. The special week was
an outgrowth of a magazine editor thinking that the public should have more
information about hospitals … because at that time few people had a broad
understanding of what hospitals did and how they cared for the ill.
Since that time, National Hospital Week has grown
into the nation’s largest healthcare event.
“National Hospital Week, first and foremost, is a
celebration of people,” says Michael Givens, administrator St. Bernards Medical
Center. “At St. Bernards, we traditionally designate each day of the week as a
‘special’ day, with all activities directed toward acknowledging the role
played by those on our staff … both clinical and ancillary … as we care for our
patients.”
St. Bernards activities will include the following:
·
Monday
– Sundae Monday – Employees can stop by the Dietary Conference Room at
designated times during each shift to create their own sundaes.
·
Tuesday
– Community Day – Employees will take
part in an in-house fund-raising competition called “Cha Ching for Babies,” with
the winning departments earning the privilege of throwing a pie in the face of
the St. Bernards Administrator, the vice president who oversees operations of
their department and department directors and/or managers. The pie throwing
will take place Wednesday at the Grill-Out on the Rooftop. Each department will raise money to help
support the new Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at St. Bernards. And by
supporting that new service, employees will have opportunity to take ownership
in something that provides a much-needed service for families with premature
and very sick babies in this region. Its presence lets parents stay closer to
home while their babies are cared for in a specially equipped unit under the
direction of a staff of specially trained of physicians, nurses and others.
·
Wednesday
– Grill-Out on the Rooftop – Employees will go to the rooftop of the parking
garage for hamburgers and hot dogs at lunch. In addition, the departments that
win in categories of the Cha Ching for Babies fund-raising competition, will
get to take aim and throw pies in the faces of leadership. (Employees who work
second and third shifts will be served at an alternate location.) All will have
opportunity to register for door prizes.
·
Thursday
– T-Shirt Day – Employees can take a break from wearing uniforms, and don St.
Bernards T-shirts for the day.
·
Friday
– Auxiliary Appreciation Tea – Employees will be treated to punch and a wide
variety of homemade desserts – items made by members of the St. Bernards
Auxiliary – from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Dietary Conference Room.
St. Bernards is a 438-bed not-for-profit acute care
hospital which serves as a referral medical center for residents in 23 counties
in Northeast Arkansas and Southeast Missouri. For more than 100 years St.
Bernards has served the heathcare needs of those in communities throughout the
region and has delivered the most comprehensive array of services of any
facility in the region.