Geary Community Hospital recognized 41 of it’s employees Tuesday night for their years of service to the hospital. Those employees are celebrating anywhere between five and thirty years of service.
Tami Love has been with GCH for 30 years this year, the past eight with the Rago Radiology department. Pat Small, Rago Radiology Director, explained that Love works at the front desk which is perfect for her, “It’s a great position for her because her personality is right their, shes fun, shes just a crazy person for one thing and keeps us in stitches. She’s really good for that spot because she’s got a big heart, a kind heart.”
Of her 30 years Love said that she loves the people she works with and the fact that she still get’s to see some of the people she used to work with when she did home health.”I get to see all of my little old ladies and men that I took care of and I love it, I’m blessed.”
Valerie Darland is also an employee of the Rago Radiology department and is celebrating 25 years with the hospital. Small has worked with Darland for all of those 25 years and called her a “Jack of all trades” because she does CT scans, X-rays, Ultrasounds and Mamograms.
Over her 25 years she still remembers back to her first day at GCH after being at St. Francis Regional Medical Center in Wichita where she took her schooling. ” I walked into the radiology department and I picked up the clip board and looked at all the patients that where scheduled for exams and said, that’s not bad for today and Pat said that’s for the week.” She explained that now the radiology department runs 80 or more patients a day through the department and feels honored and blessed to be a part of it.
Another employee who has been with the hospital for 25 years is Karen Connell.
Connell is a certified operating room nurse in the Surgery Center at GCH. She said what keeps her coming into work is the people.”I’ve developed a close relationship with certain individuals and we work together to provide a service and we’re very focused and we have the same goals in mind. That keeps me here. The people that I work with and our focus on goals together.”
Tuesday night was the hospitals 14th annual Employee Recognition Banquet held at the Geary County Convention Center at the Courtyard by Marriott.