Recognizing BCH Health Care Heroes

Ten team members from Boulder Community Health (BCH) have received nominations in a new regional Health Care Heroes award sponsored by BizWest magazine. BizWest asked their readers to nominate organizations and individuals who had important accomplishments in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic over the last year.

These multiple nominations reflect the collective efforts of everyone at BCH that enabled us to provide optimal treatment and care to our community throughout the pandemic.

"Almost every day I receive emails or letters praising the quality and compassion of the medical care provided at BCH," said BCH President & CEO Rob Vissers, MD in a an email to employees. "I get so energized as I read through those stories of the amazing impact we have on people’s lives. That’s why I was delighted but not surprised when I learned that our BCH Family had gotten 10 nominations."

BCH was nominated in the Community Service category, which honors an individual or organization for leadership that impacted health care within the community and fulfilled a need that might otherwise not have been met.

Emergency medicine specialist Dr. Kim Feldhaus and infectious diseases specialists Dr. Mark King and Dr. Amie Meditz were nominated in the Frontline Health-Care Worker category, which honors an individual who displayed excellence, dedication and perseverance in responding to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 Support Worker category had four BCH nominees — our Pandemic Planning Steering Committee; Cynthia Heuer, Technical Lead for Microbiology in the Lab; Gloria Gonzalez-Engle, PCA on 3 North; and Jeremiah Martinez, aide in Sterile Processing.

Chief Medical Officer Ben Keidan and Pharmacy director Casey Diekmann were nominated in the Distinguished Service category, which honors a health-care administrator who displayed leadership excellence within their organization during COVID-19.

Carol Lathrop and Mark Meyer were nominated for the Volunteer Award. Carol has been instrumental in helping to increase the comfort of long-term mask use by knitting hundreds of mask extenders for our staff and our patients. Mark has served as a COVID screener for more than a year, helping to keep Foothills safer for patients and staff.

Congratulations to all!

BCH also received some additional but more whimsical recognition from Boulder County Public Health, which sent BCH a COVID-19 piñata in recognition of our organization’s efforts to “beat down” the pandemic! One of the personal notes with the piñata said, “Our community is stronger with you all and this pandemic showed it. We are so grateful for the partnership and leadership.”