UTMC employees nominated for Healthcare Heroes Award

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Two University of Toledo Medical Center employees have been nominated for a 2013 Healthcare Heroes Award and will be recognized at a reception Thursday, June 27, at 5:30 p.m. at the Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion.

Janelle Tipton, an oncology clinical nurse, and Dr. Joan Duggan, director of the Ryan White HIV Center, are two of the 23 nominated health-care professionals.

Four will win a Healthcare Hero Award, and a Lifetime Achievement Award also will be presented at the annual awards reception organized by the Hospital Council of Northwest Ohio to recognize the contributions of health-care workers in northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan.

Nominees must exemplify patient care, innovation, research, education, management or community service in order to be recognized.

Tipton has worked at UTMC for 26 years, always with a focus on cancer patients. Tipton decided oncology interested her because of her nurse mentor, Lisa Hartkopf Smith, and her father’s cancer diagnosis while she was a new graduate nurse. She often gets referred to difficult or unique cases that involve complicated or newer forms of treatment.

Some of Tipton’s community service includes working with the American Cancer Society’s Board of Directors and the Making Strides for Breast Cancer Walk. She also is a member of the Lucas County Colorectal Cancer Coalition and a past president of the Toledo Area Nursing Society.

“I am humbled because I enjoy my work, and I feel I am just doing my job,” Tipton said. “It is nice to be recognized, but it is really my passion. A lot of things I have done, including my community service, are important for patients and the nursing profession.”

Duggan is in charge of the Ryan White Center at UTMC. She and her team care for about 800 HIV patients. Duggan said caring for those with HIV has been her passion and she considers it an honor. The patients are the real heroes, according to Duggan.

UT has been the location of the federally funded Ryan White Center since 2000. Services include anonymous HIV testing, HIV prevention and education services, and pediatric HIV care and prenatal care. Duggan encourages all people between 13 and 64 years old to get tested.

For more information on the Hospital Council of Northwest Ohio Healthcare Heroes program, visit hcno.org.