PUTNAM COUNTY
National Hospital Week comes May 7-13 this year and Putnam General Hospital (PGH) is already gearing up for a week-long celebration.
“It’s an opportunity for us, as well as our community to recognize hospital employees and all that they do to provide care for patients every day of the year,” PGH Chief Executive Officer Alan Horton said. “We look forward to it every year and I know our employees look forward to it, too.”
PGH Foundation Director Tracy Stickley likens the Hospital Week initiative to Teacher Appreciation Week, in which local businesses are asked and encouraged to donate items or make financial contributions that go toward things like buying employees’ lunches for a day or sponsoring an onsite food truck.
“All of the employees here give their heart and soul taking care of other people, so this is a chance to show them a little love,” Stickley said. “It lets everyone know that we all know what they do. We understand. We know it’s hard. We appreciate it. It’s a thank you, and everybody likes a thank you.”
From hospital executives to doctors and nurses, orderlies and office staff, to maintenance and cleaning workers, everyone at Putnam General Hospital will be recognized and celebrated during National Hospital Week.
“We’ll rotate things each day because obviously you can’t just shut down the hospital,” Stickley said. “So, we kind of do all this in between still taking care of our patients.”
Right now, things remain in the planning stages, as Stickley works with a Hospital Week planning committee that includes Horton, human resources specialist Rhonda Cave and purchasing manager Candace Pennington.
“We’ve got a whole team of people and we just kind of bounce ideas off of each other and make sure we stay within budget,” Stickley said. “We don’t over ask because we want people to contribute to the hospital. I mean, this is really just a way to celebrate the employees and whatever help we can get is greatly appreciated by everyone here.”
And for those who may not have a business to donate monetarily to the Hospital Week cause, Horton suggested an old-fashioned show of appreciation instead.
“A lot of people already do this, but if people could just write cards or letters, that would mean almost more than anything else.Simple notes of appreciation about what this hospital means to them and about the importance of having a hospital in our community. It just means so much,” he said. “We get those letters a lot from patients or their families, but just anybody in the community, if they just write a letter of thanks to the hospital, we’ll share those with staff, post them on the bulletin board, and everybody appreciates it so much. We all do.”
National Hospital Day was introduced to the United States in 1921 for communities to recognize the role of local hospitals following the 1918 Spanish flu outbreak.
In 1953 it was expanded to a full week and now coincides with National Nurses Week. Both are centered around pioneering nurse Florence Nightingale’s May 12 birthday.