Baystate Physician Receives Compassionate Caregiver Award

SPRINGFIELD – Dr. Paul Jodka, intensivist, Critical Care Division, Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, was recently named the winner of the Kenneth B.

Schwartz Center Compassionate Caregiver Award. He received the award on Nov. 3 at the Schwartz Center’s 10th anniversary dinner in Boston.

Established in 1999, the award is given annually to honor caregivers in Massachusetts who display extraordinary compassion in caring for patients.

Jodka, an ICU attending physician in Baystate Medical Center’s Level I Trauma Intensive Care Unit, was chosen to receive the award out of 60 nominations statewide, which included finalists from the Dana- Farber Cancer Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Shriners Hospital for Children.

The Schwartz Center’s mission is to support and advance compassionate health care in which caregivers, patients and their families relate to one another in a way that provides hope to the patient, support to caregivers and sustenance to the healing process. The Schwartz Center reflects the vision of health care attorney Ken Schwartz, whose friends, family and caregivers established the organization shortly after his untimely death from lung cancer in 1995.

“We are thrilled that Paul Jodka is this year’s Compassionate Caregiver of the Year Winner,” said Julie A. Rosen, Executive Director of the Schwartz Center. “Paul is a humble, earnest, and caring physician who has become an inspiration to his co-workers.

Although most of his patients are too ill to communicate, Paul talks to their families and loved ones at length to gain insight on how the patient might feel and how they would wish to be treated.”

Jodka completed his medical residency at Baystate Medical Center. He has been a Critical Care staff physician there since 2001.