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News Release

Media Contact:

Christina Chavira
Communications Specialist
530.332.5589 office; 530.588.4411 cell
christina.chavira@enloe.org

Enloe presents three Spirit of Planetree Awards,
Enloe Foundation awards $12,500 in Scholarships

Editor: High-resolution photos are available.

CHICO, Calif., May 25, 2012 – Enloe Medical Center presented its fifth-annual Spirit of Planetree Awards and the Enloe Foundation gave $12,500 in scholarships during Caregivers Week, May 14-18.

The Enloe Foundation awarded 14 scholarships totaling $12,500 to Enloe employees to support furthering their education. The scholarships were made possible by generous donations from community members, physicians, employees and volunteers.

A committee of Foundation Board members and community members selected the recipients. Congratulations goes to: Nichole Eisermann, the Claudine O. Bell and Helen L. Head Scholarship; Kristen Bishop, the Janis K. Anderson Scholarship; Amber Webb and Tracy Weeber, the Golf Tournament Nursing Scholarship; Amber Ascherin, Amber Genato and James Pippin, the Peggy Steel Nursing Scholarship; Anna Coates, the Dr. Doug and Zinita Benson Trauma Emergency Surgery Scholarship; Ashton Averill and Coco Wilburn, the Men’s Associates Scholarship; Terri Bremer, Stephanie Christensen, Dorothy Mraz-Smith and Jeremy Osborne, the Enloe Employee Scholarships. The Enloe Foundation Scholarship Program supports highly qualified people entering the medical field and encourage employees to continue on their educational path.

The Spirit of Planetree awards promote patient-centered care by recognizing the individuals who personalize, humanize and demystify the health care experience for others as well as the programs and services that support extraordinary achievement in patient-centered care. Caregiver Award - Erick Smith
Erick Smith works as a Lift Technician and with the Enloe Education Center, teaching CPR and participating with new employee orientations. Over the past year, Smith also participated as a valuable member of  two Enloe task forces working to improve the patient experience. He was an active member of  the Responsiveness Task Force, which focuses on providing a timely response to patients’ call lights. Smith also presented the work of the task force to colleagues, physicians, members of senior management and the Board of Trustees. We appreciate Smith’s advancement of patient-centered care at Enloe, his enthusiasm and the way he engages and respects each of his colleagues.

Planetree Champion Award – Joseph Chiapella, MD
Dr. Chiapella, certified in Internal Medicine with a specialty in Rheumatology, joined the Enloe Medical Staff in 1979. He helped to establish the Enloe Hospitalist Program in 1995 and is the Medical Director of Enloe’s Los Molinos Family Health Clinic. As a hospitalist, Dr. Chiapella sees patients throughout Enloe Medical Center. He is described as one who makes decisions that are in the best interest of his patients, Enloe and his colleagues. Dr. Chiapella is passionate about his patients’ needs, takes time to listen to them and works with them to affect the best outcome. Daily he demonstrates the tenets of patient-centered

care, always putting patients first and caring for their medical and emotional needs. It is with great pleasure that we recognize Dr. Chiapella with the Planetree Champion Award.

Program Award – Mother &  Baby Care Center
Becoming a new parent can be an exciting and wonderful time, and the Enloe Mother & Baby Care Center is available to help make this one of the most meaningful experiences of a lifetime. From prenatal classes, to policies that support babies’ 24-hour rooming in with their mothers and skin-to-skin contact within one hour of delivery, to the breastfeeding support and encouragement given by our staff, the team works to ensure a healthy start for families. Thanks to the Mother & Baby Care Center’s dedication, Enloe became the 119th Baby-Friendly hospital or birth center in the United States under criteria established by the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund to provide an optimal environment for the promotion, protection and support of breastfeeding. As a Baby-Friendly-designated hospital, the Mother & Baby Care Center provides families the information and guidance needed to initiate infant feeding and mother-baby bonding.

In 2008, the Enloe Regional Cancer Center was presented with the National Spirit of Planetree Award for a commitment to providing patient-centered care by utilizing the tools of Planetree and bringing together patients, the hospital and the community.

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Enloe Medical Center is a local, nonprofit health care organization. For more information, please call 530/332-7300 or visit us online at http://www.enloe.org.   Enloe Medical Center is located at 1531 Esplanade Chico, Calif.  95926.