Nurses Honored
BERLIN – Earlier this year, Atlantic General Hospital (AGH) held its annual nursing awards ceremony, recognizing Iris Hudson as Nurse of the Year and honoring Glenn Lebedz with the Friend of Nursing Award.
Iris Hudson
Hudson has been a member of the Atlantic General family for 21 years, and her radiant presence can be felt by every patient and associate within the hospital. Throughout her years at AGH, Iris has served as a mentor to younger nurses, established herself as a source of unparalleled knowledge and acted as a beacon of warmth for every patient that walks through the hospital’s doors.
As written by a colleague, “I started working at AGH over nine years ago. Iris immediately took me in and showed me the ropes of the nursing profession. Her compassion, advocacy and talent for the profession is why she is an amazing nurse and charge nurse. She would lend the shirt off her back for any patient, and each patient she encounters she treats like family. Her friendship, mentorship, encouragement and guidance helped me get to the moment I’m at in my career.”
Providing high-quality patient care is Hudson’s key source of motivation, and she humbly attributes her success to the teamwork-driven work environment seen at AGH.
“I became a nurse for the patient. I stayed a nurse for the patient. However, it was the people with which I have worked that made my stay more meaningful, and I believe helped me make a difference for our patients,” Hudson said.
It was Hudson’s plan to retire prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, but she decided to stay to assist both the patients and nurses who were struggling to combat the virus – a true testament to her dedication to serve the needs of those in the Eastern Shore community. Hudson announced her retirement this year at the awards ceremony. Although Atlantic General will go without such an extraordinary nurse and individual, everyone is happy to know that Iris will be enjoying her well-deserved retirement.
Lebedz, director of support services at AGH, was recognized with the Friend of Nursing Award. The Friend of Nursing Award is given to an individual whose role is not directly linked to nursing, but still goes above and beyond the scope of their duties to assist the Atlantic General nursing staff in any way possible.
Being the support services director, Lebedz has a wide range of responsibilities in the hospital and has
Glenn Lebedz
continued to utilize his resources to aid the nursing staff through various challenges they may be confronted with.
In Lebedz’s nomination, an Atlantic General nurse wrote, “During our extremely busy times, Glenn was always supporting the nurses during the most recent COVID surge. Glenn was instrumental in giving free breakfast for the hospital team and realized this was a needed resource to help keep up morale with the medical staff. When nurses weren’t able to leave the floor, Glenn provided meals so that they could get food on the floor … Glenn also helped with negative pressure to provide an added layer of protection to nurses on the Med/Surg unit during the latest COVID surge and developed a plan in case we had to utilize more oxygen being piped into the hospital because of the high volume of ventilators and vapotherms in use. Glenn also helped during the latest snowstorm. He provided dinner for staff spending the night and made sure safe passage for incoming patients and staff coming into the hospital.”
While Lebedz may not be a part of the nursing staff himself, he has demonstrated a strong devotion to the support and safety of all Atlantic General nurses, making him a true friend of nursing.
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Agent Welcomed
OCEAN CITY – EXIT Realty Ocean City is pleased to announce that Tracey Sapia has joined its growing team of dedicated real estate sales professionals.
EXIT Realty Ocean City, located at 5700 Coastal Highway, Suite 202, Ocean City, Md., is a proud member of EXIT Mid-Atlantic’s rapidly expanding network of independently owned and operated brokerages across the region.
A full service, forward-thinking, real estate franchisor with offices across North America, EXIT has, to date, paid out more than a half a billion dollars in single-level residual income to its associates.
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Engineering License
SALISBURY – The architectural and engineering firm of George, Miles & Buhr, LLC (GMB) congratulates staff member Joshua T. Elliott, P.E., on recently passing the eight-hour Principles and Practice of Engineering exam and becoming a licensed professional engineer in the state of Delaware.
Joshua Elliott
Elliott, a Delmar native who currently resides in Ridgely, Md., is a project engineer in GMB’s Seaford, Del., office. He began interning with GMB in 2017 and joined the firm full-time upon his 2018 graduation from the University of Alabama.
On his choice to pursue an engineering career, Elliott says, “I spent a lot of time with my grandfather growing up and he taught me that no problem was too small to solve and no problem was too big that it couldn’t be solved. His mindset instilled in me a joy of solving problems. Engineering is a field where you face new problems big and small every day and the best part about it is the problems are never the same. I will never get tired of seeing my solutions to these problems implemented and observing how they impact the community and environment around me.”
Elliott is wrapping up several projects in the City of Lewes, including water and sewer improvements in the Pilottown Road and Savannah Road areas. He is currently working on the design of improvements to the Howard H. Seymour Water Reclamation Plant, also in Lewes.
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Hospital Recognized
SALISBURY – U.S. News & World Report, a global authority in hospital rankings and consumer advice, has named TidalHealth Peninsula Regional and TidalHealth Nanticoke as 2022-2023 High Performing Hospitals for 11 challenging and elective health conditions, the highest award a hospital can earn for U.S. News’ Best Hospitals Procedures & Conditions ratings.
The annual Procedures & Conditions ratings, now in their eighth year, are designed to assist patients and their doctors in making informed decisions about where to receive care. The recognition by U.S. News acknowledges the care provided is significantly better than the national average, as measured by factors such as patient outcomes.
TidalHealth Peninsula Regional was ranked as the fifth best hospital in Maryland (tie) and was again named a Best Regional Hospital for the Eastern Shore. The Salisbury hospital was recognized as high performing in stroke care, the treatment of pneumonia, lung cancer surgery, knee replacement, hip replacement, kidney failure, heart failure, the treatment of heart attack, diabetes, colon cancer surgery, and for the care of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
TidalHealth Nanticoke in Seaford, Del., was ranked a high performer in the treatment of stroke and rated on average with peer United States hospitals in nine other categories (COPD, diabetes, heart attack, heart failure, hip fracture, hip replacement, knee replacement, pneumonia and kidney failure).
For the 2022-2023 Best Hospitals rankings and ratings, U.S. News evaluated more than 4,500 hospitals across 15 specialties and 20 procedures and conditions. Fewer than half of all hospitals received any High Performing rating, and only four earned this rating in all procedures and conditions.
“Organizationally, it’s great to again be honored among the best with our peer hospitals in America,” said Steve Leonard, Ph.D., MBA, FACHE, president/CEO of TidalHealth. “This recognition is an acknowledgement of how hard everyone in our health system continues to work, including our board, medical staff and volunteers, to maintain the best possible environment for our patients. It is gratifying to know these team efforts are being recognized again nationally by U.S. News, and for our Maryland hospital to be ranked among the top five in the state.”