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Chris Feazel-Orr "didn't wait for a problem to surface on its own or assume someone else would catch it. He proactively built a safeguard."

A UVA Health team member is being honored for keeping an eye not only on his own site, but also on another one — all while maintaining patient and team member safety, top of mind.

UVA Health University Medical Center interim Chief Operating Officer and UVA Health Chief Pharmacy Officer Danielle Griggs, PharmD, MBA, MS — and Jenny Ernest, Nursing Governance Coordinator, Nursing Professional Governance Office — surprised Chris Feazel-Orr, CER, CRCST, Sterile Processing Coordinator, Surgical Care Riverside (SCR), with a BEE (Being Excellent Everyday) Award.

Veronica Clark, CRCST, Sterile Processing Manager, nominated Feazel-Orr:

"Chris consistently exemplifies what it means to go above and beyond in service to our patients, team, and organization. He demonstrates exceptional dedication, leadership, and initiative every single day by performing responsibilities well beyond the scope of his position. His unwavering commitment to excellence directly supports safe, high-quality patient care and reflects the very best of our ASPIRE values.

"Sterile Processing operations at SCR were impacted by ongoing HVAC [heating, ventilation, air conditioning] issues, requiring all instrumentation to be reprocessed at Orthopedic Center on Ivy Road (OCIR) Sterile Processing Department. Chris stepped forward to coordinate the daily movement of instrumentation between facilities.

"Every day, Chris arrives before his scheduled shift to verify the first courier delivery is complete and accurate, ensuring the operating room has the instrumentation needed for first-case starts. At the end of the day, he routinely stays beyond his scheduled hours to confirm outgoing instrumentation is prepared and loaded for transport properly. His dedication helps maintain seamless surgical operations. His willingness to consistently go above and beyond demonstrates accountability, stewardship, and an unwavering commitment to serving his colleagues and our patients.

"His initiative extends far beyond his daily responsibilities. Chris proactively purchased a digital temperature and humidity monitoring device to monitor continuously the sterile storage environment — reflecting his commitment to excellence, integrity, and patient safety by identifying environmental concerns.

"His vigilance proved invaluable. During the early morning hours one day, the monitoring device alerted him that environmental conditions had changed dramatically. When Chris saw the alert, he acted immediately. He promptly notified the SCR operating room manager, ensuring leadership was aware of the environmental event before the start of the surgical day. Upon arriving onsite, he immediately notified Sterile Processing leadership and had already developed a plan to protect patient safety. Without hesitation, Chris led the effort to identify, remove, and coordinate transport for all affected instrumentation to OCIR for complete reprocessing. His calm leadership, rapid decision-making, and ability to anticipate operational needs exemplify professionalism, integrity, and excellence under pressure.

"Chris consistently treats every challenge as an opportunity to serve others. He earns the trust and respect of surgeons, nurses, scrub technicians, Sterile Processing team members, and leadership because of his reliability and unwavering dedication to doing what is right for our patients. His actions embody UVA Health ASPIRE values every day and demonstrate that exceptional patient care begins long before a patient enters the operating room.

"Chris is truly deserving of the BEE Award for his extraordinary commitment, leadership, and relentless dedication to patient safety and operational excellence. His willingness to exceed expectations, solve complex problems, and always place patients first makes him an invaluable member of our team and an outstanding example of the values we strive to uphold!"

Joseph Avila, MBA, BHA, CRCST, Assistant Chief, Sterilization and High-Level Disinfection, also nominated Feazel-Orr for his stellar response on that same day:

"I'm nominating Christian Feazel-Orr for a BEE Award for the initiative and vigilance he has shown in monitoring sterile storage conditions at SCR — initiative that paid off and directly protected patient safety.

"Christian placed a temperature and humidity logger in the SCR Procedure Room, used as sterile storage. This wasn't something he was asked to do — he recognized that consistent, reliable environmental monitoring is essential to sterility assurance, and he took it upon himself to make sure that gap was covered.

"That vigilance is exactly what caught the problem this morning. Christian's logger registered a rapid environmental shift in the sterile storage space. His data was available first thing in the morning to inform leadership's decision-making, helping support the decision not to proceed with surgery onsite at SCR that day.

"Christian's actions reflect exactly what the BEE Award is meant to recognize: he didn't wait for a problem to surface on its own or assume someone else would catch it. He proactively built a safeguard into sterile storage monitoring, stayed vigilant, and that vigilance gave our team the information it needed — right when it mattered most!"

Know a Deserving Team Member?

The BEE Award recognizes UVA Health University Medical Center team members who work alongside our nurses to impact patients' experiences — just as bees and flowers depend on one another.

Every month, Nursing Professional Governance Organization (NPGO) BEE Award Committee honors up to two UVA Health University Medical Center team members with this award. Submit a nomination.