Tim Buit, left, Vice President of Finance, Chief Financial Officer at The Bellevue Hospital (TBH), presents a gift basket to Eileen Hay, RN, CDE, TBH’s nominee for the Ohio Hospital Association Albert Dyckes Healthcare Worker of the Year Award. Also taking part are Denise Bullion, RN, and Michael K. Winthrop (right), President and CEO of TBH.

Eileen Hay, RN, CDE, with The Bellevue Hospital’s (TBH) Cardiac Rehabilitation and Diabetic Education Departments, is one of 75 finalists from around the State of Ohio for the Ohio Hospital Association’s (OHA) Albert E. Dyckes Health Care Worker of the Year Award. The winner and all nominees will be honored in June at a banquet in Columbus.

            "I am honored to accept this award. My co-workers have always been supportive and this helps to make my job so fulfilling and gratifying. It is a privilege to represent TBH,” said Hay

            Janet Runner, Vice President of Patient Care Services at TBH, said about Eileen, “She is an outstanding nurse. She is able to combine critical thinking with compassion, experience with imagination. As Booker T. Washington said, ‘Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.’ Excellence in care is Eileen’s motto, and every one of her patients benefits from her gentle, common ways.”

The nomination of Eileen for the award reads in part: Mary “Eileen” Hay, RN, CDE, has been employed at The Bellevue Hospital since September 1972.
            During her 37 years of employment and various nursing roles, Eileen has always incorporated education of herself, her fellow employees, her patients and their loved ones into the healing process. She’s seen by her staff as their mentor as she helps them find their special niche in healthcare, directing them on how to best utilize their talents while striving to be the very best they can be.

            She is a great team leader as she leads by example.   She pushes herself to set and achieve extraordinary goals and continues to search for methods of improving the health of the patient.  For instance, she recognized the importance of cardiac rehabilitation and diabetic education, and worked to establish both programs more than twenty-two years ago in our 50-bed hospital, and in the process brought this type of healthcare to individuals who would not have had the opportunity to participate, and thereby has affected, changed and saved lives because of her progressive leadership.

            She continues to upgrade equipment, technology, techniques and certifications in the ever-changing healthcare environment.  

            When Eileen looks around her, no matter where she is, she is looking for a way she can be of service, anyway she can help make things better.  Once she sees what needs to be done, she immediately starts working to make it come true.  She has presented programs for hundreds and for less than 10.  She gives programs at her church and will go wherever she is asked to educate.

            She’s proactive in the treatment and prevention of diabetes in the young, and has worked with the schools and PTOs in Bellevue & Clyde, formulating programs to teach teachers how to better manage students with diabetes in their classrooms and she works with the students as well.  

            She was a pioneer in the area of Patient Education before it was the thing to do.  Her rehabilitation patients comment that Eileen finds them to answer their questions – sometimes before they even know they have a question, she knows them and their health so well.  And it’s easy to ask her a question, and better yet, she answers it in a way they understand.  She’s concerned about them and includes them and their loved ones in developing their healthcare plans.   

            Eileen faces challenges, searches for opportunities to improve, and never stops creating with a “shoe string” or no budget to improve residents of Ohio healthcare.
            She has worked in our Medical/Surg unit, in the Emergency Department and in ICU.  In each area she recognized the need to help the patient recover so they wouldn’t come back.  Today she is working even more diligently in developing ways to get to the patient earlier -- in preventing disease.
            She is a self-starter in bringing excellence in the education and treatment of diabetes, pulmonary and cardiac rehabilitation.  She has set up a comprehensive Diabetic Self-Management Program and Cardiac/Pulmonary Rehab Program with a support groups for each group.
            In 1994, she met the CDC criteria for diabetic education and was awarded the Model Diabetes Education Program by Ohio Diabetes Control Program and Bureau of Chronic Disease by ODH.  Her programs were the first in our area to have received Program Certification through the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation.  She received her Certified Diabetes Educator certification in 1992.
            She is a member of the Ohio Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation Association; the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation; and the American Association of Diabetes Educators.

           Eileen and her family are active in their church.  She uses her nursing background to help educate her community about positive life-styles, changes that can dramatically improve their health and make a difference in their lives. An example is the picnic she developed for Type 1 diabetic children to attend that combines family, education and fun.  

            She is also always looking for ways to help find funds for patients without insurance or the ability to pay. She will write grants, be active in fundraisers, and make personal requests.  There is no organization too big or requests too small if she is able to help a patient in need.  

            Eileen is available to patients at any time to answer their questions.  It’s important to her to be there for them, as she knows anyone with a newly discovered illness can be upset and sometimes afraid, but with Eileen as their instructor, they will not be alone.   This is also true in her patient’s follow-up care; she is persistent and professional but never pushy.  Ask her patients and they say, she’s like Santa Claus, she knows if they have been naughty or nice, if they are exercising and reducing their carb intake.  

            In 1988, Eileen developed and has since maintained successful diabetic education and cardiopulmonary rehabilitation programs.  She has championed these programs and won support through the deliver of professional treatment and successful outcomes of her patients.

            Her dedication to her patients is legendary. One morning, in the hospital’s parking lot as she was walking from her car, another employee backed into Eileen. Her leg was injured.  After being seen in the Emergency Department, she came into work for her patient’s scheduled appointment times.  

            Eileen is one of eleven children and her mother was a teacher.  All of Eileen’s siblings have selected careers that are educationally oriented carrying on her family tradition of achievement and academics.  

            Because of her dedication to her profession, Eileen works with a researcher at the University of Toledo Medical Center to further an understanding of diabetes and the impact of diabetic education on the disease.

            She is active in the American Diabetes Association and American Heart Association.  She serves on several committees including the Certified Diabetic educators from six local hospitals, serves as the chairman of the Diabetic Self-Management Education Program.  She attends state and national conferences for diabetic and cardiac educators, often at her own expense, to bring back the latest information and best practices to her patients.

            Eileen was also instrumental in developing the hospital’s Wellness Committee Program.

            Eileen Hay, RN, CDE, has worked at The Bellevue Hospital since 1972 and has been instrumental in developing successful diabetic education and cardiopulmonary rehabilitation programs.  These programs, along with the various support groups, and community events, touch the lives of thousands of people and make a positive impact in our community.  

            It is her caring and dedication to nursing and education that continues to positively effect people’s lives.  

            Her patients are never alone in their journey to a healthier life-style; her staff sees her as their mentor and says she cares about them as individuals with unique talents; her community benefits from her ongoing programs and screenings; her hospital benefits from her leading by the examples of dedication, professionalism and progress.”

            Every hospital in the state was invited to nominate one person for the Dyckes Award, which was created in 1996 to honor a hospital employee who demonstrates leadership, reflects the values and ideals of Ohio’s health care facilities, goes above and beyond the call of duty, gives back to the community, and has overcome odds to succeed.