Nine members of the Atlanta Association of Health Care Recruiters were honored with the inaugural ajcjobs 2011 Outstanding Recruiter Awards on June 1. About 50 people attended the event, which was started to mark the 20th anniversary of National Health Care Recruiter Recognition Day.
The top honorees were Brandy Tate of Southern Regional Medical Center; the team of Almeta Collins, Heather McCranie and Carol McDermott of DeKalb Medical; and Sue Dunlap, also from DeKalb Medical.
Tate, who has worked at Southern Regional Medical Center for 15 years, was cited for handling the recruitment of 85 positions at one time and taking on worker’s compensation cases.
Collins, McCranie and McDermott were honored for excellence while serving as the sole human resources consultants for a 3,800-employee organization. They were also cited for hiring top talent and delivering customer service with a smile.
Dunlap, who has worked at DeKalb Medical for almost 16 years, was nominated for her exemplary performance managing the Employment Department with compassion during a period of difficult staffing changes.
Also nominated were Kim Baldwin (Amedisys Home Health Services), Debra Ely (Piedmont Hospital), Lisa Lohr (Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta) and Linda Simmons (Emory Healthcare).
GHSU endowed chair: Martha S. Tingen, co-director of Georgia Health Sciences University's Child Health Discovery Institute and interim program leader of the Cancer Center's Cancer Prevention and Control program, has been named the Charles W. Linder endowed chair in pediatrics.
The Linder Chair, which honors the 1963 GHSU graduate and associate dean emeritus, will primarily support Tingen’s mentorship of junior pediatric faculty in research endeavors.
Tingen, Ph.D., MSN, BSN, is an established investigator with a school and community-based focus on preventing tobacco use among children and helping parents quit smoking. She is among the Augusta college’s highest-funded researchers, with annual federal support of more than $1.2 million. Her goals include preventing smoking-related disability, disease and deaths.
She is a mentor for GHSU’s master’s and certificate programs in clinical and translational science for clinicians.
Regional conference: "The Essentials of Legal Nurse Consulting" will be presented by the Atlanta chapter of the AALNC on July 30. The conference, which is for registered nurses seeking an independent career in legal nurse consulting, will be from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Northside Hospital's Doctors Building in Atlanta.
The cost, which includes a continental breakfast and a platter lunch, is $89 before June 30 and $99 afterward. Six CEUs have been approved. For information about registration, hotel reservations and speakers, go to www.AtlantaAALNC.org/Conference.
Kaiser's new president: Kerry Kohnen, a veteran of more than 30 years in health care, will serve as Kaiser Permanente of Georgia's new president.
Kohnen has been with Kaiser for 35-plus years, recently serving as senior vice president of operations for Kaiser Permanente of Georgia.
Kaiser, the largest nonprofit health plan in the state, has more than 240,000 members with 28 medical facilities and affiliated hospitals in a 28-county metro Atlanta service area.
More trauma units for burns approved: Gov. Nathan Deal has signed legislation that would create more trauma units for burn victims in Georgia. The measure designates burn trauma centers treating at least 300 burn patients annually as designated facilities of the Georgia Trauma Care Network Commission. That designation paves the way for trauma network funding for treatment of indigent burn victims at the centers.
Georgia has only two major burn trauma centers. One is at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta; the other is at Doctors Hospital in Augusta. ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hospital to change hands: St. Mary's Health Care System of Athens plans to buy St. Joseph's East Georgia Hospital and move it from Greensboro to a site near Lake Oconee.
CEO Don McKenna said that St. Mary’s already serves people in the area. St. Mary’s Health Care System, which runs a nonprofit hospital in Athens, has expanded into surrounding counties in recent years with satellite testing centers, specialty offices and urgent care centers, McKenna added.
The 25-bed Greensboro hospital has changed hands three times in the past three and a half years. St. Joseph’s Health System of Atlanta acquired the hospital in November 2007. ASSOCIATED PRESS
— Compiled by John Brieske, Pulse Plus editor
