Judy O'Connor-Snyder Wins DAISY Champion Award in Lebanon

On March 12, Judy O'Connor-Snyder, executive director - operations, was awarded the DAISY Champion Award, which recognizes an individual for bringing the DAISY Award program to their hospital. 

Her nominator, Scott W. Childers, administrator - Mercy Hospital Lebanon said the following: 

It is my distinct pleasure to nominate Judy O’Connor-Snyder for the DAISY Champion Award. Judy is the epitome of what the DAISY award stands for. Not only is she responsible for bringing the DAISY Award program to Mercy Hospital Lebanon, but she also lives the values and sentiment that the award stands for. Her outstanding clinical skills associated with her keen ability to rapidly assess a patient’s demeanor and quickly connect in a manner that soothes, reassures and reinforces patient’s confidence in the high quality care her staff provides at Mercy Lebanon, makes her a leader who truly exudes the spirit of the DAISY Award.

Last year Judy took it upon herself to arrive to work early every day so she could personally meet with each patient that was admitted to our hospital. She did this to ensure they were receiving the excellent quality of care that we seek to provide every patient and to also connect with them personally. Judy is known across our community as Nurse Judy and many patients ask to see Nurse Judy when they are in our care. Recently we had a patient that was ready for discharge after a lengthy stay as an inpatient. However, the patient could not be discharged because their utilities had been turned off and they had no funds to pay the bill and no relatives to support them. Upon learning this, the staff quickly began taking donations from co-workers to get this patient’s utilities turned back on. As soon as Judy learned of this effort, she immediately stopped the collection efforts and paid the entire sum herself to get power restored and allow this patient to have a dignified transition from hospital to home. The examples could go on of how Nurse Judy champions and personalizes the attributes we are proud of at Mercy. These same attributes also make her a great Daisy Champion.