Athens, Ga. (January 15, 2024) - Hallie Chestnutt, a patient care tech and unit secretary on the Mother/Baby unit at Piedmont Athens Regional, and Ginger Hines, an emergency room charge nurse at Piedmont Atlanta, are the winners of the annual President’s Award given by Piedmont leaders. Piedmont Healthcare President and CEO Kevin Brown personally selected Chestnutt and Hines out of thousands of nominees from across the Piedmont system for the exceptional lifesaving care they provided.
Piedmont’s promise is to make a positive difference in every life we touch. The organization recognizes one employee from each entity within the system on a monthly basis for living Piedmont’s values in the form of a Promise 360 Champion Award. At the end of each year, every entity awards an annual winner, and from these, the President’s Award winner is selected. This year, Brown decided to present the award to two deserving employees because the nominees were so outstanding it was hard to choose just one. Patients, family members, and Piedmont employees may enter nominations.
“You’re going the distance, going the extra mile, and making a difference in the lives we touch,” Brown said at a recent meeting of leaders from across the Piedmont system where the 19 entity champions were recognized.
Hallie’s story:
Chestnutt, a PCT/unit secretary on the Mother/Baby unit at Piedmont Athens Regional, was taking a mother’s vitals when she noticed that her newborn was pale and not breathing. She alerted the team and began chest compressions right away. “That is the first time I ever initiated CPR, and it had to be on a four-hour-old newborn.”
After the baby was moved to the NICU, Hallie turned her attention to the distressed mother, who had just witnessed her newborn in a life-threatening emergency. Hallie asked the mom to “scoot over” so she could hold her in the bed, then made phone calls to the family who were still on the way to the hospital. Though it was Hallie's clinical training that kept the baby’s heart going, her human kindness and compassion helped the mom put her own heart back together again.
At the companywide meeting at which Chestnutt was honored, the mother, father and baby surprised her as part of the ceremony and Chestnutt tearfully held the baby in an emotional moment.
Ginger’s story:
Hines said, “I feel like it was just my job,” when asked about her Promise 360 story. Ginger is so good at her job in the Piedmont Atlanta ED that she saved the life of a Piedmont patient who was a visitor at another hospital.
A Piedmont patient with a critical battery-powered medical device had rushed to the Grady emergency room for a family member in crisis and forgot to bring along his spare batteries for the device that keeps him alive. The patient was down to 15 minutes of battery time when he called the support number for the medical device. The medical device’s service coordinator then called Ginger, who was working as the charge nurse in the Piedmont ED. Ginger’s quick thinking and collaboration saved a life from many miles away.
Ginger grabbed spare batteries and recruited an ambulance crew that had just dropped off a patient. The paramedics went “lights and sirens” down to Grady with the batteries in a race against the clock. While they drove, Ginger worked the phone between the two hospitals to make sure that the patient was right by the door. The ambulance arrived, and the batteries were replaced—with two minutes to spare.
The President’s Award, the highest honor Piedmont gives, comes with a $5,000 prize to each winner. If you’d like to nominate a Piedmont employee for a Promise 360 award, visit piedmont.org/promise360.