Hospital honors its veteran employees
PRESQUE ISLE — The Aroostook Medical Center honored a special group of its own at a breakfast at the A.R. Gould Memorial Hospital in Presque Isle recently.
Contributed photo
NEW VIP EMPLOYEES — Employees of The Aroostook Medical Center who have served for more than 20 years were honored at a special breakfast recently at A.R. Gould Memorial Hospital, where they were inducted into a Veterans In Partnership (VIP) club. Sylvia Getman (far right), president and CEO of TAMC, congratulates this year’s honorees, from left: Penny McDonald of Presque Isle, Kathleen McKinnon of Bridgewater, Rhonda Orser of Mars Hill, Laura Turner of Washburn and Barbara Rafford of Ashland. Also named VIPs but not at the breakfast were Vilma Craig of Ashland, Dale Gordon of Caribou, John Whittaker of Mapleton and Elizabeth Wipperman of Presque Isle.
Although TAMC acknowledges all of its employees are VIPs, those with over 20 years of service are given the designation VIP, for Veterans In Partnership. The impressive gathering of the hospital’s most tenured employees is celebrated at a breakfast each December.
Nine employees were welcomed to the VIP ranks, bringing to 158 the total number of team members currently in the program. That is about 16 percent of the non-profit healthcare organization’s workforce.
Those who most recently reached the 20-year milestone of service are: Vilma Craig of Ashland, chief nursing information officer; Dale Gordon, FNP of Caribou, a provider in the emergency department; Penny McDonald of Presque Isle, from the environmental services department; Kathleen McKinnon of Bridgewater, a CNA at the Aroostook Health Center in Mars Hill; Rhonda Orser of Mars Hill, administrative assistant at the Aroostook Health Center; Barbara Rafford of Ashland, from the revenue cycle department; Laura Turner of Washburn, community liaison; John Whittaker of Mapleton, from Crown Emergency Services; and Elizabeth Wipperman of Presque Isle, from patient accounting.
“We are very fortunate as an organization to have such talented and dedicated employees who have spent either their entire career or a good portion of their career with us,” said Joseph Siddiqui, vice president of human resources. “These team members have contributed to our growth and have helped mentor many employees over the years.”
That sentiment was echoed by TAMC President/CEO Sylvia Getman. “That’s why we are the organization we are today, because we have people who are committed and see things through,” she said.
In her comments to the gathering, which included more than 75 VIP members and other TAMC leaders, Getman shared a letter from a patient which highlighted the great patient care she and her family have received. She told a poignant story of a health scare with her infant daughter and how the nurses in TAMC’s Women & Children’s Department so inspired her that she went back to school to earn a nursing degree.
Getman used the story to underscore the difference TAMC employees make in the lives of those they serve.
