Cooley Dickinson Announces Awards

NORTHAMPTON – More than 100 people attended the 129th Annual Meeting of the Cooley Dickinson Board of Trustees staged recently at the Hotel Northampton. At the meeting, several awards were given, including the BECOME Award, the William E. Dwyer Distinguished Service Award, and various medical staff awards.

Geoffrey Zucker, MD, physician with Hampshire Gastroenterology Associates, vice president of the Cooley Dickinson medical staff and a Cooley Dickinson Medical Group director, received the William E. Dwyer Distinguished Service Award. The Dwyer award is given each year to outstanding individuals whose service on behalf of Cooley Dickinson exemplifies loyalty, leadership, and dedication to improving the health of our community.

Nominated by her colleagues, Chris Orlen, clinical director, case management, received the BECOME Award, a recognition that celebrates an employee who models the Cooley Dickinson organizational values. According to her nominators, “she has demonstrated a vast institutional knowledge, an ability to work across departments and an understanding of the importance of all of our BECOME values.”

As with the BECOME Award, recipients of the Medical Staff Awards were nominated by their colleagues.

The Medical Staff Clinical Excellence Award, given by the Cooley Dickinson Hospital medical staff to the physician who has achieved significant improvement in clinical outcomes, was presented to Holly Michaelson, MD, a general surgeon and chief of Surgery, and in practice at General Surgical Care in Northampton. Her leadership has been instrumental in the high quality surgical care and outcomes delivered at Cooley Dickinson.

Frank Meyers, MD, a physician at Hampshire Gastroenterology Associates, received the Medical Staff Patient-Centered Care Award. The medical staff gives this award to the physician who demonstrates a high level of empathic care and always looks to the patient’s values to guide decisions. His gentle unhurried and highly personalized approach to his patients is maintained day after day, case after case.

The Medical Staff Nursing Care Excellence Award is given by the Cooley Dickinson Hospital registered nurse who best represents teamwork with physicians to drive best clinical outcomes. This year’s recipient, Amy Hamel, a registered nurse in the case management department, embodies the spirit of team work and commitment to excellence in clinical outcomes.

According to her colleagues, she is a “team player and has an outstanding ability to facilitate a patient’s transition from inpatient to discharge. She is always available to help with other aspects of patient care including pitching in during acute emergencies.”

The Advanced Practice Clinician Award is given to the provider who best represents teamwork with physicians and hospital staff to create quality patient outcomes and improve care. It was presented to Matthew Lawrence, a nurse practitioner who works on the hospital’s Critical Care Unit.

The medical staff gives the Teamwork Award to the physician who demonstrates a highly developed ability to bring teams of clinicians together to improve care. It was presented to Helena McCracken, DO, who brings to Cooley Dickinson Hospital the ability to interact with a variety of clinicians on the health care team to help organize care and consultation for her patients, to monitor clinical outcomes and to guide the time to improved care.