BC Ambulance Service (BCAS) Employee Recognition Awards
By Anonymous
The BC Ambulance Service (BCAS) Employee Recognition Awards Program provides formal recognition to individuals or teams for their exemplary contributions. Nominations fall under four broad categories: Delivery of Patient Care or Client Service, Community Involvement, Teamwork, and Leadership.
Each year individuals and teams throughout BCAS are nominated by their peers and a committee reviews the nominations and selects the award recipients.
If you would like more information on a particular recipient, please feel free to contact us at the phone number below.
This year’s recipients in the Interior Region are:
Lillooet – Teamwork Award
Unit Chief Jane Christy and paramedics James Byrne, Brett Marotto, Kim Ayers, Chris Colbourne, Melissa Paulhus, Ejay Beresh, Rachael Johnson and Mike Whicher
During the 2009 fires in Lillooet, this team went above and beyond to help their communities. Throughout the many hours worked during the incident, they also managed to evacuate the station and set up at the hospital. Even when they were exhausted, they wanted to do more, often while their own families were being evacuated from their homes.
Kamloops -Leadership Achievement Award
Amy Berthelot
This paramedic shows a positive and kind attitude towards others and avoids disharmonious conversations. Amy’s encouragement of teamwork and a positive workplace is outstanding; her attitude is infectious and encouraging and often results in a happier workplace.
Kamloops – Patient Care or Client Service: Executive Director’s Commendation Award
Randy McLeod
In July, a BCAS paramedic’s husband went missing on the Shuswap. Once it got dark, the search for him was to resume in the morning. The paramedic contacted colleague and Unit Chief Randy McLeod, who was holidaying at his cabin on the lake, and told him that her husband was missing. Randy dropped everything to begin his own search. He and a family friend took a private boat and began searching the banks of Seymour Arm. His search began at 7:00 a.m. and the man was found at 10:00 a.m. Randy immediately began emergency treatment and requested a helicopter to fly him to hosptial. The man survived and was reunited with his family and puppy, which Randy looked after while he was in hospital.
Kamloops -Patient Care or Client Service: Innovation Award
Randy Macleod
Unit Chief Randy Macleod has been a leading force in the ongoing development of the Kamloops based Critical Care Transport Team. He has put numerous hours into the improvement of health care for critically unstable patients in the community health centres and scenes of illness and accident.
Interior & Northern BC Communication Centre (based in Kamloops) –
Patient Care or Client Service: Client Service Award
Lorraine Vowles
BCAS dispatcher Lorraine Vowles has taken personal initiative to expand the use of the NetTransit on-line patient transfer booking system to improve customer service to medical facilities and decrease workload in the Interior & Northern BC Communication Centre (INBCCC). She has tirelessly worked to communicate and promote this service among nurses and unit clerks in the Interior Health Authority service area by organizing user accounts, established an e-mail user notification system and providing ongoing user support, much of her work done on her own time. Her efforts directly address issues of client satisfaction and dispatcher workload and have a positive impact on all stakeholders involved in inter-facility patient transports.
INBCCC – Patient Care or Client Service: Executive Director’s Commendation
Terra Vallely
When a call into the BCAS dispatch centre for a patient who had been in a mountain bike accident and was in cardiac arrest, Terra, a trainee dispatcher recruit, stayed on the phone for over an hour and provided life saving dispatch CPR instructions while first responders and BCAS paramedics were en-route. The patient was revived on scene because of Terra’s professionalism and patience. For someone who was very new on the job and in training, her skills were extraordinary.
