Congratulations to Joey Ryan, Emergency Department Unit Secretary, this month’s sunshine Award recipient at The Medical Center of Southeast Texas!

Read on to see why she was nominated for the award:

“Joey is our unit secretary in the ER, always hands on with patients and is a good team player. She caught an error with an EKG, which got a patient to Cath Lab even quicker!! Way to go!”

“Joey in her role as ER Unit Secretary caught 2 STEMIs in one week! While juggling answering phones, working on transfers (which alone is A LOT) one top of of all the other unit secretary duties, she always has an eye on the unit monitors. Joey is also trained as an ER tech and able to work in that role in the department as well.

In both occurrences, the patient’s initial EKGs did not have ST elevation. She noticed that the patients had rhythm changes on the monitor, went to the bedside and captured a repeat EKG. She noted the STEMI and brought it to the ER physician’s attention immediately, and the patients were quickly whisked away to the Cath lab! We are so lucky to have Joey in the ER!”

“Joey is our unit clerk/tech. She manages a busy ED desk of incoming calls, arranging transfers out of our department, and watches our central telemetry monitors.

Just last week, on two separate patients, Joey noticed a rhythm change and realized the patients were having an acute MI. Joey promptly notified the patients’ nurse. A cardiac alert was called on both events. The patients were taken immediately to the Cath lab where they had successful intervention.”

The Sunshine award exists to help recognize hospital staff members that support nursing staff! Without sunshine, DAISYs wouldn't be able to grow and likewise, nurses at The Medical Center wouldn't be able to do their jobs without so many people that work in the background to make everything possible.