AWARD WINNERS

Patient Service Newsletter

Congratulations to the following four-time award winning employees who will receive a Visions for Success gold name badge to showcase their three pins and $500 as recognition for consistently exceeding our Visions for Success standards!

Kerry Akins (Ames Registered Nurse)

January 2023 | Nominated by Stacey Olson

We were at a busy satellite location (Webster City). I was calling the patient back to get the eye exam started. The patient’s wife stopped me and asked, “How much will this exam cost, we don’t know if insurance will cover this or not?” Kerry stepped in, brought the patient’s wife in an exam lane and together they called the insurance company. The patient and patient’s wife were grateful. Someone went beyond to help them. Especially when they have been trying for weeks to get a hold of the insurance company.

March 2023 | Nominated by Brianna Shideler

Kerry has traveled to Spencer clinic more times than can be counted. But she came up in a snowstorm to help with clinic on a day that I was by myself to make sure that I had enough help to get through the day. Which also took her over 3 hours to get home that afternoon. Besides this day, I took vacation at the end of January that I had planned prior to being the only nurse for Dr. Fox which meant he had no staff for the week I was going to be in Mexico. Kerry offered to come up that week while he was in clinic and cover staff for him. This made it so that Dr. Fox didn’t have to take any days off and still allowed for me to take the vacation/PTO that was approved for my time off. This also made it so that we didn’t have to reschedule any of our patients, as many of those had already been reschedule several times due to changes in our schedule or weather-related changes. Kerry is always going above and beyond to help in other locations where she is needed even if that means cutting out her own paperwork days, etc. We appreciated all she has done to come up and help us here in the Spencer office!

May 2023 | Nominated by Steven Anderson, MD

I am nominating Kerry Akins for the Wolfe Eyes on You Award. Since the Spencer office has been short staffed, Kerry has stepped up and offered to go to Spencer to work with Brianna and Dr. Fox to help with training and to help in clinic as much as she possibly can. She has given up many of her paperwork days to do this as well as days that my team would be ok without a third assist in clinic. She has taken time away from her family as well to stay overnight in Spencer to be available for days in a row. During this time frame, after some very sad news from the Spencer office, she took it upon herself to go to Spencer on her paperwork days to help get paperwork done for one of the nurses so that she did not have to worry about work and could focus on being with her family. Kerry consistently displays an incredible example of teamwork within the Wolfe family and performs her duties with excellence. I am very honored to have her be a part of my team!

Kerry Akins (Continued)

June 2023 | Nominated by Kerry Lowery

The driver of a patient went out to use the bathroom and when he came back, he was having a little bit of a difficulty breathing. He said he gets like this when it’s hot. He felt our office was hot. He was on oxygen. I went back and pulled Kerry A. out of a room, and she immediately came and checked on him. She checked his pulse and asked all the right questions. He wanted to go out to his car with the air conditioning going so she took him out. She got his phone number and then called and checked on him. He said this was common for him but she explained “It’s important to make sure.” She called him a short time later to check on him. She did a great job immediately. We can always count on her for this type of thing.

Lisa Boender (West Des Moines Retina Imager)

February 2021 | Nominated by Taelor Christensen

Lisa stepped up and helped enter the tech information when our computers were down. She entered about 1520 charts into Integrity on 2/17/21, while she was training. Lisa saw that the lobby rugs were bunched up, so she straightened them out so patients wouldn’t trip. She always helps when needed and when it’s not her job to help. She is always helpful and nice to everyone and patients.

January 2022 | Nominated by James Davison, MD

On 11/16/21, patient Steven R. was seen in clinic for a cataract evaluation. Dr. Davison reviewed patient’s testing and gave him an eye exam. The patient had no vision complaints, so cataract surgery was not scheduled at that time. Later in the day, Lisa stopped by to ask Dr. Davison what he thought of this patient’s macular OCT. Dr. Davison reviewed the OCT again, and discovered peripapillary CMV, which he missed at first view. It is very likely that, while holding the printed OCT, Dr. Davison’s thumb was covering the concerning area of the OCT. The patient was then called and scheduled to see Dr. Alliman for a consultation and probably injection. Without Lisa’s diligence, knowledge and patient-centered care, this condition needing treatment would have been missed. Lisa went above and beyond, taking the time to follow up on this patient’s unique OCT. Dr. Davison is very thankful

February 2022 | Nominated by James Davison, MD

Lisa found another finding on an OCT that I missed. There was an RPE detachment in the inferior peripheral macula. We had been looking on paper display for months but now Mod Med shows everything! Reminder to me to look at this every time. Thanks Lisa.

March 2023 | Nominated by Cheyanne Weis

I want to recognize Lisa for going above and beyond. She has taken the initiative the last two or three times that we have been in Pleasant Hill, to go around and pick up the dirty clips from the rooms, clean them, and sterilize them. That is normally the job of the nurse, but she has gone out of her way to help us out without us needing to ask her and it has been greatly appreciated.

Tara Haskin (West Des Moines Patient Representative)

January 2020 | Nominated by Jason O’Neil

Tara is always willing to help out her co-workers and go above and beyond. Recently she has taken over side jobs for another co-worker who is on leave. On top of that, she is helping train two new employees, both up front and back in insurance. Tara is floating back and forth between departments and does not ever complain. She has become the go-to with any questions and is always happy to help. She has gone well above her regular job duties the last few weeks and continues to do so. Being short-staffed recently, her efforts have helped out even more.

July 2022 | Nominated by Kim Padgett

Tara was in charge of taking care of some reschedules for Dr. Christiansen for the following week. She called one patient to move and was informed that this would be her 3rd move since July. Patient also told her she wanted appointment and surgery done before the end of September when she would be leaving for 6 months. Tara went to work calling a couple of physician teams to see what could be done. She ended up putting her in with Dr. Christiansen in MTN and had surgery days.

September 2022 | Nominated by Matthew Rauen, MD

I would like to recognize the tremendous effort for multiple employees. On 9/1/22, power was lost on the WDM campus. This led to a need to re-schedule half of the LASIK cases for that afternoon. To accommodate the schedules of the LASIK patients and patients who were already scheduled in the clinic, the staff decided to do LASIK cases between hours of 600 AM and 800 AM. This required team members to begin their days as early as 300 AM. Some employees will be seeing clinic patients as late as 600 PM tonight as we are also addressing a cornea emergency this afternoon. Thank you for recognizing the efforts of these employees who decided to put needs of patients first. Just outstanding commitment.

May 2023 | Nominated by Kim Padgett

On Monday 05-01-23, it was a very windy day. Tara was making her way out of the clinic to head back to her desk at the LASIK area. When she stepped outside the clinic, there was a little elderly patient that was definitely having a tough time walking to her car due to the wind gusts. Tara didn’t miss a beat and went over and took the lady’s arm and walked her to her car so she wouldn’t fall or be blown over and hurt. She made sure that the patient was in her car safely, before walking back to the surgery center. Tara is a great employee that goes above and beyond in many ways – many of these are unnoticed. She is very deserving of this award.