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Each quarter, Uteam Members of the Month from the Medical Center, School of Medicine, and UVA Physicians Group (UPG) are recognized for outstanding service to UVA Health and their commitment to our ASPIRE core values: Accountability, Stewardship, Professionalism, Integrity, Respect, and Excellence.

Below are the honorees for Quarter 4 of Fiscal Year 2021. Click a name to read the corresponding nomination (and leave a comment below to thank the honorees for their dedication to our patients and each other!). Congratulations team!

Nominations have been edited for clarity or privacy.

MEDICAL CENTER

• April 2021 Uteam Member of the Month: Sandra “Sandy” Schwaner, Advanced Practice Provider, Interventional Radiology
• May 2021 Uteam Member of the Month: Katherine “Katie” Kois, Assistant Nurse Manager, Surgery Admission Suite
• June 2021 Uteam Member of the Month: Marinda Barbour, Access Associate Senior, Heart Clinical Support

SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

• April 2021 Uteam Member of the Month: Elizabeth “Liz” Shifflett, Pediatrics Department Administrator, Pediatrics Administration
• June 2021 Uteam Member of the Month: Johanna Loomba, Director, Research Programs Informatics

UPG

• May 2021 Uteam Member of the Month: Abigail "Abby" Hall, HR Business Analyst, UVA Physicians Group

Medical Center

Sandra “Sandy” Schwaner, Advanced Practice Provider, Interventional Radiology
April 2021 Uteam Member of the Month

"Sandy Schwaner is remarkably dedicated to patient care and to continuous improvements in the patient care process, which is indicative of her dedication to the ASPIRE values. Over the past year, Sandy has tirelessly and diligently led the effort to totally deconstruct and reconstruct the care model and workflow processes in the Interventional Radiology Clinic. The changes have been transformative, resulting in more effective and efficient patient care, improvements in patient progression, and significant improvements in patient satisfaction, provider satisfaction, and staff satisfaction.

"Sandy is also a strong and tireless patient advocate, as evidenced by a recent event that was highlighted by our colleague as follows:

"Good afternoon,

"Today, I was assigned to care for an infant with complex congenital heart disease for an ENT procedure. It was recognized at 7:15 that the patient would greatly benefit from central access as the PICU has been unable to place a PICC in the unit. We approached Sandy (NP) in IR with the late add-on at 7:30. Within 25 minutes, she identified with Dr. Contrella and the IR team that they could adjust their schedule to accommodate this complex infant. The IR team arrived at the OR with minutes of being called after we completed the primary procedure. The team was collaborative, communicative, and obviously so focused on the best care for the baby. To top it all off, Dr. Contrella and team had the PICC in place in no time. As a new person to UVA, I was overjoyed with this great display of teamwork and commitment to the best in patient care.

"These are but two examples of Sandy's remarkable dedication to the highest levels of patient care, and we are remarkably fortunate to have her on the Interventional Radiology team, and as a highly valued member of UVA Health."

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Katherine “Katie” Kois, Assistant Nurse Manager, Surgery Admission Suite
May 2021 Uteam Member of the Month

“Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Katie has taken the lead in perioperative services to develop standard operating procedures in order to keep patients and staff safe. As the pandemic continued and our knowledge about COVID-19 grew, Katie worked diligently to ensure that our current practices reflected the most up-to-date recommendations. During the initial planning stages of pre-operative testing at UVA, Katie quickly rose to the challenge of assuming the large responsibility of being a liaison to surgical teams, operating room staff, hospital epidemiologists, infection control practitioners, COVID-19 clinic team members, the clinical microbiology laboratory, hospital leadership, and many others.

“She was instrumental in the development of the COVID-19 preoperative testing program that went live during the summer of 2020. As her work with ID continued, so did our testing capabilities.

“Last November, she contributed to the implementation of universal preop COVID testing as well as universal admission testing for patients in the main OR. Regarding universal admissions testing in the OR, Dr. Amy Mathers, Associate Professor of Medicine and Pathology, said, ‘This program has helped keep our patients safer and avoid doing elective surgery on COVID infected patients who are known to have worse outcomes from both surgery standpoint and COVID infection. In addition, admission testing has prevented nosocomial transmission of COVID to patients and staff.’

“Throughout the nearly constant change of the last year, Katie has been a resource for all in periop and beyond. She understands the principals of COVID testing and has been responsible for training and directing staff during implementation. She has overseen continuous evaluation and improvements for the ease of both staff and patients. Katie has encouraged surgical team accountability for prioritizing rapid PCR tests due to limited testing availability and capacity based on protocols and guidelines.

“As a liaison to surgical teams, OR staff, hospital epidemiologists, infection control practitioners, COVID-19 clinic team members, clinical microbiology lab, hospital leadership, and PACU staff, she has helped ensure that the OR continues to operate efficiently while protecting both staff and patients through evidence-based practices.

“Katie was instrumental in the establishment of logistical support structure for preop testing. She has a thorough understanding of the nursing process and has employed this to avoid unnecessary testing of patients following recovery from COVID-19 to avoid delays in patient care and wasting limited resources.

“In addition to her work among the adult surgical population, Katie recognized the difficulties related to testing children with special needs and behavioral concerns. She composed a work group including anesthesiologists, Children’s hospital leadership, ID, and nursing management to develop SOP to address this problem.

“‘I honestly do not believe that the pre-operative/pre-procedural testing program would be where it is today without the assistance of Katie,’ said Debbie-Ann Shirley, MD, MPH, Division Head, Pediatric Infectious Diseases.

“Katie’s work on COVID processes for the organization has been essential. Katie never says, ‘I don’t know,’ or ‘I can’t help you.’ She says, ‘Let me look into that for you,’ or ‘I’ll check.’ She has completed this work while excelling at her responsibilities as assistant nurse manager for the Surgical Admissions Suite, leading major SAS expansion projects, physically moving SAS operations, managing staffing, orienting a new nurse educator, serving as a graduate nurse preceptor, and ongoing performance management. Her dedication to the organization and perioperative services is evidenced by her continuous work on process improvement, patient safety, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

“As our fellow perianesthesia ANM, Katie has swiftly become our partner in crime and a trusted member of our small peer group, lovingly known as ‘COVID Katie’ due to her extensive knowledge and position on speed dial for any questions related to COVID.

“With COVID adding to the stress of day-to-day operations, Katie takes the time to check in with the PACU ANMs to make sure we are good because she knows that effective leaders must care for themselves in order to effectively lead their staff, demonstrating her commitment to the Dare to Lead™ strategy of ‘rumbling with vulnerability.’ We often schedule lunch check-ins and coffee meetings, which have become essential to our resilience and mindfulness.

“Katie has graciously gone above and beyond to ensure the safety, well-being, and ongoing education of perioperative staff during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her work has undoubtedly made a huge difference to countless adults and children who have had surgery during the pandemic.

“Katie has co-authored the following documents, resulting in standardized screening, testing, and decision-making processes for surgical patients: ‘Clinical Decision Support (CDS) Main OR and OPSC Surgical Case COVID-19 Screening and Testing Guideline,’ ‘Precall Testing Algorithm,’ and ‘Surgery and Precall Flow Process.’ Her work has contributed to the safety of patients across surgical services at both the Main OR and OPSC. These guidelines keep patients safe by identifying asymptomatic COVID positive patients and avoiding elective surgery on COVID-infected patients who are known to have worse outcomes.

“In addition, she has been instrumental in preventing nosocomial transmission of Covid to patients and staff through these practices’ guidelines.

“‘Katie’s service has helped to protect the safety of both patients and team members, improve patient experience, and ensure good surgical outcomes,” said Shirley.

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Marinda Barbour, Access Associate Senior, Heart Clinical Support
June 2021 Uteam Member of the Month

“Marinda Barbour has sustained an extraordinary level of customer service and professional excellence not just during the last year, 2020, which was an unprecedented year by any standard due to COVID, but over the last number of years. It is truly remarkable how long she has sustained the consistency of her high level of performance. Failure to recognize what she has accomplished is not an option, and that is why I am making this nomination.

“I’ve worked at this health system since 2011, and, by default, this implies I’ve worked with high-performing individuals for a decade. However, Marinda has set a standard that exceeds that of any scheduler or access team member I’ve encountered here, and furthermore, her example in demonstrating what ASPIRE means in the workplace exceeds that of most other employees with a variety of job titles. She does work on a daily basis that is well outside of her normal job duties.

“My goal is to highlight Marinda Barbour’s exemplary service over an extended period of time. In particular, her superlative customer service, her professionalism, respect, and the level of excellence she brings to her work. In all these consistent things, she has provided a significant contribution to the community of care at UVA Heart and Vascular that elevates the experience of employees and patients alike.

“The job description for Access Associate Senior says, ‘Provides exceptional customer service while assisting customers in obtaining access to medical services at UVA Health.’ The implication is that all those in this role extend an exceptional level of service, and of course that is not at all true, or we wouldn’t look to honor those who actually are exceptional.

“A synonym of exceptional as used in this job description is extraordinary. Well, Marinda absolutely is extraordinary. She elevates routine tasks to a whole new level. When she calls patients, she conveys a level of respect that anchors the person on the receiving end to a space of security and trust. She is a point of contact for people who are unwell, often newly diagnosed with their disease process, often new to UVA Health; therefore, more often than not they are at their most vulnerable and often not very polite, patient, or kind. Marinda meets them where they are. When I hear her talk, she is like a guide. She routinely successfully brings these distressed, confused, often angry, and frustrated patients into a state of satisfaction, relief, and hope. She listens, and the patients know from how she responds that they have been heard. She keeps them focused on the task at hand: getting scheduled for clinic visits or imaging studies (or both) or updating demographic information. She answers questions about wayfinding, billing, and parking. What makes her extraordinary in all this routine work is the way she continually proves herself and, by proximity, UVA Health to be a worthy purveyor of exceptional care.

“Marinda is the initial point of healing for so many UVA Heart and Vascular patients. It’s as though she is the ASPIRE model making all who come into her orbit, those both inside and outside UVA Health, believers in UVA’s marketing claims. Additionally, she brings other employees along in their professional roles, including me, a nurse. She is patient and gentle but utterly unrelenting in the way she does this.

“I spent a year in the nurse care coordinator role with a physician new to being an attending, and I was new to the subspecialty. It was enough of a challenge for me to learn the intricacies of meeting the needs of the vascular medicine patient population, but of course, in addition to that, I had to approach the referral process in a new way, make arrangements for testing to be done in association with initial visits, and use communication mediums like Epic and Outlook in new ways. I felt like I was bumbling my way through. Yet I felt certain, without initially being able to define why, that Marinda had all this under control. Marinda silently by example and often by gentle explanation taught me how to navigate through our vascular medicine and departmental ways of doing things. Honestly, I look back and wonder how many messes she prevented or cleaned up because of my newness, and never one complaint came my way. Always she demonstrated a quiet determination to move forward with the patient and the institution’s needs at the center of her actions. Mind you helping me grow in my role was absolutely not her part of her job.

“Our whole team, which includes physicians, nurses, nursing assistants, ECG technicians, and access team members, relies on Marinda as a rock steady resource. She has a deep knowledge of her specialization. She knows the referral protocols, she has an excellent understanding of what testing our patients typically need, and she navigates our communication platforms fluently. As part of her job, she has trained new members to our Access team. What I find remarkable is that those she has trained bear a kind of professional resemblance to her. She is worthy of imitation. Informal conversations occur on a routine basis among team members about how excellent Marinda is and how lucky we are she is on our team — or maybe more accurately, we are on hers. She is a great example of a high-performing unofficial leader. We hold her in high regard.”

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School of Medicine

Elizabeth “Liz” Shifflett, Pediatrics Department Administrator, Pediatrics Administration
April 2021 Uteam Member of the Month

"It is with great pleasure that I nominate Elizabeth Shifflett (Liz) for consideration for the ASPIRE. In addition to performing her job at an exemplary level, Liz demonstrates an extraordinary commitment to the SOM University team. Liz takes it upon herself to provide exceptional support and service to all faculty and staff. She discerns quickly their individual needs and moves efficiently to provide key information, recommendations, or direction. Beyond this challenging time of COVID-19 and remote-work transition, she has kept all employees and SOM Department of Pediatrics her top priority to run smooth and effectively.

"Liz epitomizes servant leadership and inspires others to give back and pay it forward. Liz is helpful, caring, resourceful, and happy to offer service no matter the task. She often performs above and beyond and recently offered her expertise and planning skills to help our department grow with Salesforce and R&R Role Management team. Her quick wit, attention to detail, and loyalty to the University have earned the upmost respect from all her staff and team members. I cannot think a more deserving employee. It has been a great pleasure and I take great pride in letting everyone know where I work and who I work for."

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Johanna Loomba, Director, Research Programs Informatics
June 2021 Uteam Member of the Month

Nomination 1

"iTHRIV recently launched the beta version of the iTHRIV Research Commons, which has been a huge team effort to advance capacity for clinical translational research collaboration and compliance. Johanna has largely led this effort for iTHRIV, taking personal ACCOUNTABILITY for timelines and deadlines, problem solving barriers and gathering user requirements all along the way. She has shown the utmost PROFESSIONALISM in this process, delivering an excellent result to serve our research community by addressing real issues around data sharing, teamwork, and integration. During this period, she leaned in, acquired new knowledge (a new master’s in systems engineering), and pulled in people to support this work to help iTHRIV support research in a new way. She is a role model for EXCELLENCE in achieving this goal!"

Nomination 2

"Johanna Loomba has successfully led a cross-grounds team to develop the first nationwide CTSI research commons within iTHRIV. She has demonstrated remarkable integrity, professionalism, leadership, and resilience during COVID and continued to move the project forward. She demonstrated remarkable accountability as the leader of the team to meet and exceed deadlines and work product expectations despite COVID disruptions. She did all of this within the financial limitations and was an outstanding steward of our iTHRIV grant dollars. She demonstrated respect for all team members across grounds on a highly diverse team of collaborators. Her work product has been recognized locally, regionally, and nationally as absolutely outstanding and the first of what will transform data infrastructure across UVA and the CTSA network nationally.

"All of this work feeds the collaborative research across all of UVA to allow our researchers to use data to improve human health. I cannot imagine a better candidate for the Uteam honors. She is an incredibly talented team member who has demonstrated the ASPIRE values resulting in innovation leading to discovery."

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UPG

Abigail "Abby" Hall, HR Business Analyst, UVA Physicians Group
May 2021 Uteam Member of the Month

"Abby has gone above and beyond for the length of her tenure here! Most recently she has stepped up to the plate, without question, during a time of transition within our team. We lost a team member, and Abby stepped right in with ideas, suggestion, plans, and also had already started to execute ideas that were incredibly beneficial and helpful to the organization.

"Her thoughtfulness, positive outlook, and commitment to providing amazing service is outstanding. She truly goes above and beyond each and every day and does so with a smile on her face. It is such a joy and honor to work with Abby and know that she has the team's best interest at heart at all times."

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