About UI Health

Class Act Awards

December 2023

Lester Vicencio, Staff Nurse, Oncology Nursing Services

“One of Lester’s most impressive qualities is his commitment to recognizing and celebrating the hard work and dedication of his colleagues. He is very much involved in our unit-based Star Employee of the Month program and has been instrumental in developing and implementing new recognition initiatives. His efforts have been critical to the success of our employee recognition program, and we have seen a marked improvement in employee morale and engagement as a result.” —Manjunatha Sooranahalli

November 2023

Stephanie Vodopic, Physical Therapy Specialist

“Stephanie thoughtfully collaborates with both patients and co-workers, solves problems creatively to optimize patient care and experience, commits herself to personal and organizational improvement, and fiercely advocates for patients who have been historically underserved by the healthcare system. Whenever I am working on a particularly challenging case, like a patient with a long hospital stay and significant functional needs, I turn to Stephanie to evaluate my approach and interventions to help make them more patient centered and successful. When I am managing a patient where interdisciplinary and family communication could be improved, I ask for Stephanie’s input, which always helps me maintain professional, focused rhetoric that advocates for the patient’s needs. Stephanie’s influence in the areas of patient-centered care and advocacy permeates our office; the inpatient physical therapy team is so strong, in large part to Stephanie’s leadership.” —Megan Chirby

October 2023

Sharrone Davis, Coordinator of Physical Therapy Services

Sharrone is the definition of excellence when it comes to UI Health’s ICARE values. As a colleague, Sharrone is someone I have really enjoyed working alongside and collaborating with on projects. She offers high quality visions that revolve around those we serve at UI Health. Sharrone comes prepared to meetings with solutions and ideas raising the bar for others to follow her lead. As a leader and coordinator of education, Sharrone shines at promoting and optimizing opportunities for therapy students here at UI Health. Sharrone recognizes the therapy talent in our clinic and strives to ensure smooth student onboarding. A more specific example: Sharrone stepped into the role of coordinator of education for OT on an interim basis. Sharrone is a PT by background but made it a point to learn and understand the value and vision of OT to best fulfill the new role duties. Sharrone is approachable, open, respectful, professional, and extremely knowledgeable.” —Jennifer Stenge

Juan Jurado, Medical Tech, Pathology Laboratory

“Mr. Jurado demonstrated on numerous occasions his creativity and problem-solving skills as well as professionalism in patient care. The most recent event that demonstrated Juan’s expertise was a quality control issue that occurred in May. He first identified the issue, and immediately initiated the action in solving the problem. He played the lead role and worked with two other technologists to retrieve and re-run over 300 questionable samples and made corrections while notifying clinicians. These quick responses were delegated without a supervisor present. Juan worked diligently and without a break on the weekend workday by solving the technical issue and ensuring the lab results reported accurately. In addition, Juan is a very kind person. He works very well in collaboration with other medical technologists and lab staff with diverse backgrounds. Juan respects and helps other people, and he is a great team player.” —Ming Jin

Javier Sedillo, Senior Quality Specialist, Pathology Laboratory

“Javier Sedillo is a hard-working, intelligent, creative, and dependable individual who is an integral member of our Pathology team as well as hospital. Javier started in surgical pathology specimen receiving and processing and has gradually become a vital member of the team and now serves the department as Senior Quality specialist. I have worked on multiple projects with Javier ever since we migrated from Cerner to EPIC as our EMR. He is our go-to person for any trouble shooting in specimen processing in pathology. Besides these duties Javier collaborated with other departments in terms of education and training of staff for correct collection and transport of specimens to Pathology. The most important project that Javier successfully completed this year is tracking of specimens from various ORs to Surgical Pathology. Implementation of this project has significant effect on reducing the turnaround time in reporting of these specimens. We started a Pl committee with several members from pathology, surgery and risk management to look at the reasons for delayed turnaround time for some pathology reports. Javier was one of the most important personnel on that committee. Thanks to his efforts we will soon have a dashboard detailing month on month TAT for surgical pathology cases. Javier brings a very positive attitude to his work and is very pleasant to work with. As a result of all this Javier Sedillo has significantly led to improved patient care. Our hospital system is greatly improved, and the patients are receiving better care because of his hard work, creativity, caring nature towards patients and work ethic.” —Vikas Mehta

Joanna Tena, Orthopaedic Technologist, Orthopaedics Center

“Joanna truly represents UI Health in the highest ways from professionalism, kindness, skills as an orthopaedic technician, and her initiation — nothing “outside of her job description.” No matter how busy or chaotic the scene, Joanna is a calm presence asking if she can do anything to help. Her teamwork attitude goes well beyond her words; she is quick to follow her offers/words with prompt actions. Joanna is consistent. I can honestly say in the past two years, I have never seen her negative or unprofessional. Joanna treats everyone with the upmost respect. She will be kind to you. She cares and exudes pride in her work and ensuring UI Health is represented well by her. Joanna’s excellence is contagious. Being around her motivates me to be more like her by enhancing my own department with a positive, optimistic attitude and helpful hand.” —Jennifer Stenger