8 minute read
From Our Foundation
nghs.com 33
2020 was filled with unforeseen challenges, struggles and overwhelming difficulty. But it was also a year filled with courage, dedication and selflessness. From the committed physicians and employees that fill the halls of Northeast Georgia Health System (NGHS) to our gracious volunteers and donors, every facet of our community went above and beyond to show just what it means to be a healthcare hero. And we couldn’t be more grateful.
Through heartfelt cards, homemade signs and donated treats and meals, NGHS employees felt the added support and appreciation they needed to push through some of the darkest moments in the history of health care, and continue to do so with grace, patience and hope.
Now more than ever, our employees’ deep interdependence and support for one another shines through. One example of this is the numerous employees who give back through WATCH, the employee giving club of NGHS. In 2019, WATCH expanded its impact with the addition of the Change Grants Program. This program was created to encourage employees to share their innovative ideas centered around improving the patient, visitor or employee experience at NGHS. Recently, the WATCH Change Grants Program selected the ideas of six employees, Angie Canton, Rhonda Hammond, Adam Raulerson, Brian Ellerbee, Robin Ketchum and James Reinhart to fund in the coming years.
NGHS is thrilled about the response to Change Grants Program and the exciting projects that have received funding, all of which will have an exponential impact on many for years to come. Thank you to all WATCH employee donors who help bring compassionate and thoughtful projects like these to life.
PHYSICIAN PHILANTHROPY MAKES AN IMPACT
For more than 50 years, Northeast Georgia Medical Center (NGMC) and local physicians have provided high quality healthcare services to our entire region. As the community has grown, the number of resources it takes to deliver care, create innovation and improve the health of our community has also grown. This is where the James H. Downey Society plays an essential role.
The Downey Society allows philanthropically-minded physicians the ability to further their daily efforts of helping people in the community by taking an active role in the funding initiatives of the Northeast Georgia Health System. Downey physicians choose an area of need within the health system to focus all of their donations each year. These gifts have helped bring Epic to Good News Clinics, improving coordination of care for this fragile population, and have funded innovative mental health programs impacting community health beyond the walls of the hospital or their practices. Most recently, Downey members donated to the Relief Fund to aid in patient care and staff support. They are true philanthropic heroes. We are so grateful for our thoughtful, compassionate and driven physicians. After this last year, when so many have lost so much, it’s a great honor to recognize this group of philanthropic and civic-minded physicians.
To see the complete list of Downey Society members, visit nghs.com/downey. If you see your physician on the list - please make sure to share your gratitude!
GIVING TO THE NGHS COVID RELIEF FUND A great way to show your gratitude for the compassionate and expert care provided by our front-line workers is to make a donation to the NGHS COVID Relief fund. Your support is essential to helping our patients and staff heal.
Make a donation at nghs.com/give.
INPATIENT HOSPICE RENOVATIONS: COMPASSIONATE CARE WHEN IT’S NEEDED MOST
Hospice is a philosophy of compassionate care, focusing on patient comfort and supporting quality of life. Each year, Hospice of NGMC team members work tirelessly to care for patients and their families. Inpatient hospice facilities at NGMC Gainesville provide essential services to families and patients during some of life’s most difficult times. The new facilities located inside the South Patient Tower includes a comfortable, home-like and calming environment where families and loved ones can share sacred moments. To help improve NGMC’s Inpatient Hospice Unit, Jack and Janice Frost made a generous transformational gift to support renovations to the unit, which were recently completed. This newly remodeled space includes a welcoming family waiting area. Additionally, a new quiet room has been added to the center, providing a calming space for families and staff to find respite from the emotional stresses they may feel.
Care Made Possible By Donors Hospice of NGMC has been able to provide personalized and compassionate care throughout the last 30 years because of generous donor support, improving quality of life for each patient when it’s needed most. Learn more about this exceptional program on pages 31-32 and make a donation at nghs.com/give/hospice.
COMPASSIONATE GIFT TRANSFORMS SPIRITURAL CARE AT NGMC
Thanks to a transformational gift from the V.C. and Mary A. Puckett Foundation to the Northeast Georgia Health System (NGHS) Foundation, Northeast Georgia Medical Center (NGMC) recently opened its new pastoral care offices, to care for our growing and diverse community during life’s difficult and challenging times.
During their 60-year marriage, Verdis and Mary Puckett lived by the values of faith, humility, kindness, service, stewardship and most of all, love. Now, Mary and her late husband have ensured those same values continue to be carried out within NGMC Gainesville through the newly renamed V.C. and Mary Puckett Center for Spiritual Care.
“Verdis always cared so much about the people around him — friends and family, church members, customers and especially his employees,” said Mary. “I wanted to make sure that together, even after he passed, we could do something to help care for those around us. Having the Puckett Center for Spiritual Care carry our family name is a great honor, and I know Verdis would be proud.”
“It’s hard to find words to express how grateful we are to the Pucketts,” said Chris Bray, president and chief development officer of the NGHS Foundation. “Their generosity and passion for helping others is evident as these renovations and enhancements will greatly impact all who walk through the hospital doors for years to come.”
The Puckett Center for Spiritual Care was recently dedicated after being refurbished to meet the needs of the program. With 20 volunteer chaplains, four chaplain residents and seven full-time staff chaplains, the space needed an enhanced lobby, larger reception and conference space, lockers and bathrooms for round-the-clock chaplains, as well as a few new welcoming touches that reflect the services provided. The renovated space offers a more calming and hospitable environment for the volunteer chaplains and other guests. “This is really for all of the people we come in contact with as a Spiritual Care department,” said Chris Jennings, director of Spiritual Care at NGMC. “We want to serve them in the best way possible, and this renovated space will help us achieve that.”
Along with the renovation, what used to be known as Pastoral Care at NGMC will now be known as Spiritual Care. As the department has grown, it has become apparent that NGMC serves a wide range of people with myriad religious backgrounds — making Spiritual Care a more fitting name. Members of the department providing spiritual care will be identified as chaplains, instead of clergy or pastors.
Northeast Georgia Health System, Inc. (NGHS) complies with applicable Federal civil rights laws and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, or sex. NGHS does not exclude people or treat them differently because of race, color, national origin, age, disability or sex.
NGHS: • Provides free aids and services to people with disabilities to communicate effectively with us, such as: • Qualified sign language interpreters • Written information in other formats (large print, audio, accessible electronic formats, other formats)
• Provides free language services to people whose primary language is not English, such as: • Qualified interpreters • Information written in other languages
If you need these services, contact:
NGHS’ Customer Care Resource Center
Telephone Number: 770-219-2998.
If you believe that NGHS has failed to provide these services or discriminated in another way on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, or sex, you can file a grievance with:
NGHS Corporate Compliance
743 Spring Street NE Gainesville, GA 30501 Telephone Number: 770-219-5403, (TTY: 1-800-255-0135) (VRS: 1-888-888-1116) Fax: 770-219-2910, or Email: corporate.compliance@nghs.com.
You can file a grievance in person or by mail, fax or email. If you need help filing a grievance, NGHS Corporate Compliance is available to help you.
You can also file a civil rights complaint with the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Civil Rights electronically through the Office for Civil Rights Complaint Portal, available at https://ocrportal.hhs.gov/ocr/portal/lobby.jsf, or by mail or phone at:
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, SW Washington, D.C. 20201 Phone: 1-800-868-1019 TDD: 1-800-537-7697 Complaint forms are available at http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/office/file/index.html.
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Northeast Georgia Health System 743 Spring Street NE Gainesville, GA 30501-3899
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