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UVA Health University Medical Center is recognizing team member excellence via the 2025 Charles L. Brown Awards for Patient Care Quality — and the 2025 National Healthcare Quality Week Awards at UVA Health Children’s. 

2025 CHARLES L. BROWN AWARDS FOR PATIENT CARE QUALITY 

On Jan. 22, 2026, the University Medical Center Patient Safety and Quality Committee honored the winners of the 2025 Charles L. Brown Awards for Patient Care Quality. 

Powerful Application  

In the Patient Safety category, the winning team is: 

• Test Right, Treat Right | Reducing CAUTI Through Thoughtful Urine Testing | The team built a smarter urine testing order panel to cut down on misdiagnosis and overtreatment. After optimization, it safely cut CAUTI events by 75%, decreased catheter days, and saved about $1.7 million — demonstrating how diagnostic stewardship could advance patient safety. 

The team is comprised of: 

• Gregory R. Madden, MD, MSDS, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health, UVA School of Medicine 
• Rebecca Corey, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Section of Hospital Medicine, Division of General, Geriatric and Palliative Medicine, UVA School of Medicine 
• Jaswitha Dova, PharmD, MSHI, Senior IT Analyst, Clinical Analytics, UVA Health 
• Amber Inofuentes, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, UVA School of Medicine; Section Head, Hospital Medicine (General, Geriatric, and Palliative Medicine), UVA Health 
• Priyanka R. Siva Kumar, MSIE, CSSBB, Performance Improvement Coach, Be Safe, UVA Health 
• William Lain, Medical Student, UVA School of Medicine 
• Marissa McKay, RN, MSN, Nurse Informaticist, Health Information and Technology, UVA Health 
• Melinda D. Poulter, PhD, Director, Clinical Microbiology, UVA Health 
• Kristi Wilkins, MSN, APRN, CCNS, CCRN, Department of Surgery, UVA Health 

“This award affirms how important diagnostic stewardship really is and how powerful it can be when carefully applied. It also celebrates the fact that success comes from a multitude of contributions across the CAUTI Coalition, nursing, medicine, lab, antimicrobial stewardship, and informatics,” says Dr. Madden, Team Lead. 

‘Incredibly Honored’ 

In the Team Member Injury category, the winning team is: 

• Improving Safety in Bedside Radiography | Reducing Radiologic Technologist Injuries and Risk of Patient Harm Using Air Friction Devices | The team initiated studies to measure physical forces required during receptor placement across various bed types and air-assisted transfer device configurations. Using both early push/pull meters and a prototype with load cells and an Arduino brain, developed in partnership with UVA Biomedical Engineering, the team quantified the push forces being exerted and found that inflating the AFRD — and using slow, controlled movements — drastically reduced push forces and total exertion time by more than 50%, while virtually eliminating patient-reported discomfort, eventually leading to a remarkable reduction in injuries.

The team is comprised of: 

• Anthony Calise, BBA, RT(R), Manager, Diagnostic Imaging 
• Robert Hunsberger, MSRS, RT(R), Supervisor II, Medical Imaging 
• Kohl Kershisnik, PT, MPT, Physical Therapist 
• Leslie Wood, PT, DPT, CSCS, AOEAS, Physical Therapist; Team Lead, Safe Patient Handling and Mobility Program 

“We feel incredibly honored to receive this award,” says Team Lead Calise. "The recognition not only validates the countless hours of dedication, collaboration, and innovative thinking, but also underscores our shared commitment to creating a safer work environment for our colleagues while continuously improving outcomes for the patients we serve.”  

Outstanding Efforts 

The Charles L. Brown Award was created to honor the service and generosity of the former member of the Health Sciences Council in the 1990s to the health system. Through this fund, $10,000 is awarded annually to a UVA Health team of faculty and staff to recognize excellence in patient care. 

“Congratulations to these teams on their outstanding patient safety and quality improvement efforts,” hails Chief Tracey R. Hoke, MD, MSc, Quality, Performance Improvement, and Population Health, UVA Health University Medical Center. “The Charles Brown Award acknowledges both rigor and outcome in performance improvement activities, and is an important part of our celebration of patient care excellence and team member respect. This year’s winners supported projects that will make our radiology team members safer and avoid urinary tract infections in inpatients. We are very proud of these improvement teams!”   

Honorable Mentions

In addition, the Patient Safety and Quality Committee awarded Honorable Mentions to:

• Acute Alcohol Hepatitis: Flipping the Prognosis from Hospice to Healthy | Team Lead: Tessa Williams 
• From Risk to Recognition: Quality Improvement in Early Cerebral Palsy Detection | Team Leads: Kate Frazier and Lisa Letzkus 
• Hemodialysis Catheter CLABSI Reduction: Impact of Bundling Distinct Disinfection Strategies with Observations | Team Lead: Brenda Deller 
• Trauma Team Performance: Reduction in Trauma Bay Times | Team Lead: Valerie Quick 

From Oct. 19 to 25, 2025, UVA Health observed Healthcare Quality Week — recognizing healthcare professionals, celebrating accomplishments in quality improvement, and focusing on enhancing patient safety and outcomes through tools, strategies, and a culture of excellence. 

“The Charles L. Brown Award is a unique opportunity for us to celebrate teams that lean into difficult challenges that directly impact the quality of care for our patients as well as the safety of our team members.  We had several impressive projects — very fulfilling to see and in turn, recognize,” praises Margaret Sande, MD, MS, MSHPEd, Patient Safety Officer, UVA Health University Medical Center, who also serves as Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Biomedical Engineering, and interim Vice Chair for Faculty Affairs, UVA School of Medicine Department of Emergency Medicine. 

NATIONAL HEALTHCARE QUALITY WEEK AWARDS: UVA HEALTH CHILDREN’S 

These awards, also established in conjunction with National Healthcare Quality Week, recognize outstanding contributions to quality and patient safety in UVA Health Children’s: 

Collaborative Care Champion: Lauren Miller | Recognizing a clinical team member who goes above and beyond to support quality initiatives. Miller led efforts to improve influenza vaccination rates in the Pediatric Cystic Fibrosis Clinic — addressing a gap identified in U.S. News & World Report data and, more importantly, strengthening protection for a highly vulnerable patient population. Her initiative resulted in a 10-percentage-point increase in vaccination rates from 2024.  

Quality Builder Award: Pediatric Pharmacy Team | Honoring a person or team that establishes or advances innovative quality efforts using data-driven workflows. The Pediatric Pharmacy Team successfully developed and implemented the Perioperative Antibiotic and Opioid Stewardship Programs, guided in part by the ACS CSV designation. These programs were recognized by ACS auditors as exemplary, and the team continues to be a key partner in driving safe and effective medication use. 

Sustained Quality Champion Award: Laura Lee | Recognizing those who have demonstrated the ability to sustain quality improvements over time. Lee has been the cornerstone of UVA Health Children’s CLABSI prevention efforts for many years, leading multiple improvement cycles and maintaining a robust database to track trends and inform next steps. She serves as a trusted subject matter expert and consistently supports this work through rounding, teaching, and leadership. 

“The National Healthcare Quality Week Awards reflect a rigorous commitment to improving safety, elevating clinical outcomes, and strengthening the patient and family experience. The initiatives undertaken by the awardees, and the leadership they have demonstrated, will have a measurable and enduring impact on the care we deliver to all children, and I am deeply appreciative of these efforts,” says Madhu Misra, MBBS, MD, MPH, Physician-in-Chief, UVA Health Children’s. 

“These National Healthcare Quality Week Awards are especially meaningful for UVA Health Children’s because they highlight what truly defines us — teams and individuals who consistently go above and beyond to improve the lives of children and families. Quality isn’t a project or a metric here — it’s a shared commitment woven into our daily work. I am incredibly proud of the innovation, rigor, and compassion shown by this year’s awardees,” Ankush Gosain, MD, PhD, MBA, FACS, FAAP. 

Congratulations to all the winners — and thank you to these and all UVA Health team members who support our strategic plan initiative of superior quality, patient safety, and outcomes.