Adventist Health and Rideout Honors 2023 Department of the Year

Adventist Health and Rideout is pleased to celebrate the Infection Prevention team as the 2023 Department of the Year!

Their nomination comes from Mallet Tuekpe, who highlighted the team's dedication to the statement "Be Love" and "Be Welcoming."

"Today, as we celebrate zero active COVID-19 patients on admission at AHRO, I take a moment to reflect on how far we have come. The last two-plus years have been challenging, to say the least. As a people, our love for each other, showing kindness, being welcoming, and being good ambassadors of AHRO in the community have all been challenged. Through it all however, despite the fears and anxieties in our own lives, our little 4-person department consciously continued living God's love and inspiring hope, especially in those chaotic and disheartening situations.

"Knowing that everything we do in our department affects all AHRO, I cannot tell you how many sleepless nights we have spent worrying about the safety of everyone. Not only did we have to understand and stay current on all the ever-changing, confusing, and sometimes contradictory COVID-19 directives, mandates, and recommendations, but we also had to quickly come up with the best ways of breaking them down in "easy-to- digest chunks" for everyone to understand. In spite of the numerous panicked, confused, angry and sometimes rude calls from associates, providers, and patients, we were welcoming, showed love, and remained forces for good. We stayed strong, steady and focused on our primary goal of keeping everyone safe, regardless of what was going on in our own lives.

“As mission owners, it was important to conduct ourselves well at work and in the community. We had to be brilliant in order to keep ourselves and everyone else safe from all infections (including COVID-19) and being curious at all times helped us to always stay up to date.

"I don't know what the future holds for AHRO as far as COVID-19 is concerned, but today we can celebrate and relish the fact that we have made it this far. For being at the forefront of it all and for steering us safely to this point, I can't think of a more deserving department for the Department of the (Year) Award than the Infection Prevention and Control Department.”