Four Banner associates honored by Phoenix Business Journal as Health Care Heroes

PHOENIX (Aug. 19, 2011) - Four Banner Health associates were honored by The Phoenix Business Journal as “Health Care Heroes” for their outstanding work and contributions to the community. The annual awards breakfast took place on Aug. 18.

Angela Allen, BSN, a nurse at Banner Boswell Rehabilitation Center in Sun City, Ariz., was named the winner in the Health Care Provider – Nursing category of the annual award. Allen, a former high school principal, serves as a resource nurse at Banner Boswell and a clinical educator for the College of Nursing at Arizona State University.

At Banner Boswell, Allen is determined to change the model of care for patients in long-term care settings suffering from Alzheimer’s and related dementia. She is working on her PhD in the College of Nursing at Arizona State. Her research, Addressing the Needs of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Patients in Rehabilitation Settings, could change how patients are cared for in long-term care settings.

Additionally, Allen created a mentorship program called the “Back to School Network” with the goal of encouraging students to attain nursing degrees. She was recently honored with the Community Service of the Year Award from the National Black Nurses Association.

Also recognized by The Phoenix Business Journal were three finalists:

• Robert Groves, MD, system medical director, critical care (Physician category). Dr. Groves has improved the quality of care for critical and intensive care patients at all 23 hospitals in seven states through the adoption of iCare and the eICU technology that allows critical care physicians in Arizona and as far away as Israel to monitor patients from a remote location and recognize when a patient needs immediate care.
• Jan Dougherty, MS, RN, Banner Alzheimer’s Institute director of family and community service (Community Outreach). Dougherty and her staff and volunteers focus on helping people and their families afflicted by Alzheimer’s disease by increasing BAI’s presence in the community and educating many about the services offered by Banner and other agencies in the state, including the memory disorders clinic, clinical drug trials and research programs, brain imaging, and human genome testing.
• Clair Gobble, Banner Baywood Medical Center/Banner Heart Hospital (Volunteer). At 92, Gobble has been volunteering at Banner hospitals for more than 25 years (over 9,000 hours!). While making sure that patients and visitors receive the very best care, he is busy in the background serving as a volunteer spokesman, encouraging others to volunteer and working to ensure that volunteer policies are consistent with Banner Health and other regulatory standards.