Celebrating the moments that make Augusta Health stronger — one recognition at a time.
At Augusta Health, we believe in celebrating each other — because every act of care, kindness, and teamwork makes a difference.
When team members go above and beyond for our patients, our community, and each other, we make sure it doesn’t go unnoticed. Recognizing those who live out the Augusta Health Way and embody our values is one way we continue to support, encourage, and lift up one another every day.
Here is a list of our most recent Values Award Winners. Join us in celebrating these outstanding team members!
Discover the multitude of ways to recognize your peers and fellow team members with just a click of a button.
Let’s give a huge round of applause and celebrate these extraordinary team members for earning the highest, pinnacle award at Augusta Health! You inspire us all, truly embodying The Augusta Health Way and making an incredible impact on everyone around you!
Join us in celebrating these outstanding team members that continue to live out our Augusta Health values daily. You inspire us as you continue to rise to the occasion: embracing change, staying resilient and focusing on how we together can help our patients, our community and each other.
You are invited to attend in person or join virtually! During this celebration, we will recognize the 2nd Quarter 2025 award recipients. Refreshments will be served!
I would like to nominate Jen Hunt, PA for the Patient and Community Centeredness Award. Today we had three family members, a mother and her two adult twin children come into be seen for shortness of breath. All three family members live in a rental home where the air conditioning went out three days ago. The temperature in the house has been 100 degrees, they've opened windows and have been using box fans with no relief. The mother has called for someone to come fix the air conditioner with no success. All three patients have asthma, and the heat has exacerbated their symptoms. The two adult children did not have inhalers. Jen ordered inhalers and bought them a window unit air conditioner. Jen had her husband pick up the air conditioner and deliver it to the UC so the family could take it home with them. What a selfless incredible act of kindness Jen portrayed in caring for this family. Jen was concerned they would have to return to UC or even the ED if they did not have relief from the heat. Jen went above and beyond to provide the best possible care for this family and deserves to be recognized.
Throughout her 25-year journey at Augusta Health Leisa Whitesell has made significant contributions to the organization. Her work in the emergency department and case management exemplified the highest standards of clinical excellence and patient centered care. For the last 2 and half years Leisa has worked as the quality improvement nurse coordinator in Population Health. With a team focused approach, she drives Augusta Care Partner quality metrics and abstracts data for value-based care contracts while thinking of ways to continuously improve data, metrics, and outcomes. Leisa’s work has increased quality scores leading to financial incentives with contracts and payors but most importantly ensuring improved quality metrics that align with wellness and health care promotion for our community members. Due to CMS regulatory changes Leisa’s role has significantly changed in the last few months. During this transition Leisa has been more than willing to learn new skills and take on greater responsibility with her wealth of knowledge, she has joined an Expanse team with the goal of streamlining and improving processes. Some of Leisa’s greatest skills include a focus on detail, structure, organization, and amazing accountability for her work. Leisa has stated that she loves Augusta Health and views her work as value added. She strives to make a difference daily not only to impact the hospital but for our community. Leisa exhibits the standards for excellence and always holds herself and work to the highest performance to elevate the mission and our vision. Leisa has stated that she wants Augusta Health to thrive for years to come to ensure her children and the future generations receive the best care.
Erica has stepped up into a new role that our unit has not had in the recent past. While stepping up into this role our department manager had to step down. Erica took the initiative to step up further and fill in the gaps while coordinating the different parts of the department manager’s role with upper management. Erica exemplifies the Augusta Health Way by fostering excellence and teamwork. She developed an OB Bootcamp to support new graduate Registered Nurses as they transition into our team, ensuring they receive the knowledge and confidence needed for success. Additionally, she coordinated an initiative for four of our colleagues to become Certified Fetal Monitoring Instructors, strengthening our internal expertise and enhancing our ability to meet the needs of our community. Through her dedication, Erica continues to elevate our team’s capabilities and commitment to exceptional patient care. Erica has found ways to create engagement within our staff by encouraging many people to participate in the clinical ladder (not something our unit has encouraged in the past). She is also available for our new grads, new hires, as well as established staff to ask questions and receive guidance from, while not coming off in a negative way. Erica consistently demonstrates appreciation for her colleagues through recognition and personal connections. For example, she recently wrote thoughtful Valentine’s cards for each member of our team. These small yet meaningful acts of kindness strengthen her relationships with colleagues while also reinforcing her role as a supportive Clinical Educator. By fostering genuine connections, Erica creates an environment where team members feel valued and empowered to grow in their knowledge and skills. Erica is an excellent leader that has made the step into the educator role this year. While she is now doing more "paperwork" she has not forgotten the bedside and is always willing to jump in and help on the floor. She is a wonderful example of a selfless leader that wants everyone to succeed and not just herself. She is truly working on building a successful unit by reworking policies, doing our scheduling, providing education to staff as well as taking a patient load when needed. Erica actively promotes professional development and proactively identifies opportunities for improvement through various initiatives, including communication boards, unit skills days, and face-to-face interactions. She has also developed a new graduate residency bootcamp, providing essential training for nurses transitioning into practice. Additionally, she coordinated an opportunity for our team to enhance internal expertise by hosting a Certified Fetal Monitoring Instructor course. Through her dedication, Erica continuously strengthens our team’s skills and fosters a culture of learning and growth.
Through her role as physician credentialing coordinator, Robyn is responsible for ensuring that our providers and service locations are eligible for reimbursement with our government and managed care payers. Not only does she demonstrate excellence in this role daily, but she routinely goes well above and beyond. Robyn is a champion of our Augusta Health values and demonstrates them in everyday interactions. Robyn’s values have allowed her to build strong relationships with our payer representatives; she is then able to lean on these relationships to escalate issues for a swifter resolution. Because of her success with these relationships, she is the go-to person when we encounter specific payer issues. Team members around the organization bring Robyn payer platform load issues that impact authorization of services, denials, and more. Examples are numerous, but include coordinating with a payer to ensure that a single location was corrected in the payer authorization system to allow for scheduling of patient services, working with a payer to update their claims system for older Rural Health claims that had denied in error, and working with a payer to update their website to correctly list all of our service locations as in network services. In building and leveraging these payer rep relationships, Robyn strengthens our ability to provide timely service to our patients and receive timely payment. By supporting the financial security of our organization, Robyn is supporting our mission to take care of all people in our communities. Robyn is looked up to as an informal leader in Revenue Cycle and other areas as well. Her strong faith, commitment to our Augusta Health values, and sincere care and compassion for others draw people to her. Whether they are seeking guidance, comfort, a laugh, or a cheerleader – Robyn provides. Team members know they can talk with Robyn in confidence and that she will be in their corner. Because Robyn builds trust and peace of mind with all of her colleagues, we all listen when she has something to say. Specific examples are so numerous that it would be difficult to provide – it is a daily and natural interaction. Robyn demonstrates professional development to our team with her commitment to ongoing learning opportunities. This past year, she earned her Certified Compliance Technician certification, showing our team that no matter how long you have been in a role there are new opportunities to learn. Robyn has also been participating in our team’s initiative for forward thinking. She has championed the innovative mindset that we have challenged ourselves to operate under moving forward. To improve our efficiency, she created a template that our team uses to gather information for multiple uses (single case agreements, out of state Medicaid, etc.). Having the right information consistently gathered prior to engaging with payers significantly improves our success rate. Robyn is also good at coming up with creative ways to design our system to get each payer the specific information they need to process claims correctly, which sometimes requires thinking outside of the normal rules while still ensuring compliant billing.
It is a shame that I can only nominate Jasmine under one category from the list. Jasmine encompasses all our Augusta Health Values and uses each of those values to deliver amazing patient care. I chose Teamwork because that is where I, and the team on 2 West, notice her efforts firsthand. Jasmine's communication with the staff is thorough and complete. She includes each team member that needs to be looped in with the patients care which includes but is not limited to: Primary RN/LPN, Charge Nurse, Virtual Nurse, Assigned PCT, and Unit Clerk. Her notes on patients are thorough and keep the team informed of where the patient stands on placement, needs, and issues. When a patient is being discharged to a facility, all the people on that pt's care team receive a group text telling us: what facility, room, accepting MD, time of transport, who is transporting and the number that we use to call report. All this information in a concise message helps to save time for the floor staff, which in turn benefits the rest of our patients. Thankfully, I can't pick out one specific example of this because she does this with each of her patients. I have received input from many patients who are so appreciative of all Jasmine does for them. Augusta Health and our patients are lucky to have her here.
I am delighted to nominate Natalie Fitzgerald for the Augusta Way category, a recognition that truly embodies excellence in every aspect of teamwork and professional dedication. Natalie consistently demonstrates an unwavering commitment to patient satisfaction, fostering a positive and compassionate environment that enhances the well-being of everyone we serve. Natalie recently sat for hours with a parent after their child unexpectedly passed in the ED. Natalie stayed with the parent for hours to offer support, strength, & compassion. If a patient wants a warm blanket or a drink, Natalie gladly gets it for them. Natalie’s professionalism is unparalleled, approaching each challenge with integrity, skill, and a solutions-focused mindset that inspires colleagues and elevates our collective work. Her call back call for the emergency department is handled with empathy and professionalism, addressing questions and concerns with such grace. Beyond her technical expertise, Natalie is a cornerstone of our team—offering support, collaboration, and encouragement in ways that go beyond expectation. Need a patient taken from triage to their room, Natalie will do it. Need help managing overwhelming volumes in the ED, Natalie is right there providing air traffic control to help keep chaos to a minimum. Her kindness and empathy create a culture where patients and colleagues alike feel valued, heard, and respected. She embodies everything one could ask for in a teammate, balancing excellence with a generosity of spirit that enriches our workplace every single day. For Natalie’s exemplary contributions to our team, her dedication to the highest standards of professionalism, and her profound impact on patient care, I wholeheartedly support Natalie for this well-deserved recognition.
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This award is given to nurses who demonstrate qualities of compassion, teamwork, knowledge and excellence. These nurses exhibit high levels of professionalism, clinical expertise, excellence in patient care, fosters patient-centered care, leads by example, and acts as a mentor and role model to other staff. RNs and LPNs are eligible for the Nurse of the Year award.
This award is given to individuals who are registered nurse leaders. They role model caring behavior, display professionalism at all times and have a passion for nursing excellence. These individuals exhibit a strong leadership image that focuses on providing patient-centered care. These leaders ensure a healthy dynamic environment that is healing and support empowered professional practice, which improves quality patient care. Clinical coordinators, nurse managers, nurse educators, nursing directors, RN office managers, and those in nursing leadership roles are eligible for the Nurse Leader of the Year award.
Recipients of this award must be dependable and patient focused, and work well with the team while advocating for their patients. They must be invested in Augusta Health’s core values. They might also be involved in unit improvement measures that promote patient satisfaction and increase unit morale. PCTs, CNAs, EMTs, MHWs, CMAs and clerical roles are eligible for this award.
Several awards are presented to hospital team members who support the nursing mission at Augusta Health. Hospital team members outside of the nursing division are eligible for this award.
Download the Great Work app from either the Google Play Store or your Apple App Store and start the 1-time pairing process to have access to send eCards to celebrate any of your team members at any time.
Celebrate with us as we showcase photos from our recent team member events, dedicated to celebrating YOU. We appreciate your commitment to each other, our patients, and the Augusta Health community. Thank you for embodying the Augusta way!
Discover our brand-new "Spirit of Augusta Health" Facebook page!
We've got another exciting way to celebrate our team members and flaunt our Augusta Health pride. Come join the fun on our exclusive Facebook page just for our team members!
