Karen Crouch – Unsung Hero Awards

Nomination

Award Category:

Admin & Clerical

Individual or Team Nomination?

Individual

Qualifying Qualities

In these challenging times, nominators were asked to show how the nominee had demonstrated the following qualities:

Exceptional work ethic - going above and beyond their job description, especially in the past 12 months.
Outstanding achievement/s in work or outside of the organisation where relevant.
Drive for innovation and proactive leadership in these challenging times.
High level of interpersonal skills, such as kindness, empathy, loyalty and thoughtfulness to staff and patients.
A resilience considering Covid to their role and to the health and wellbeing of their colleagues.

Nominators Answer

Nominee's story :

One of Karen's main duties at Darent Valley Hospital (DVH), Dartford is managing the CT diary. When COVID first hit so aggressively in March 2020 and we went into the first lockdown, as CT Supt., I was tasked with re-organising the CT diary to maintain a service while keeping patients safe. I looked to Karen for her support and, not only did she deliver but, she far excelled my expectations. We had access to another CT scanner offsite which was designated our 'clean' site. We were directed to shut down all out-patient slots on the 2 CT scanners at DVH while maintaining the 2ww cancer pathway and Urgent slots. We also had to continue booking appointments for patients’ due surveillance scans on their cancer pathway. The scanners at DVH were kept exceptionally busy scanning very unwell in-patients but we needed to keep scanning out-patients and the vast majority were sent to the 'clean' scanner offsite. Karen went through the diary in early March and re-booked all the existing out-patient appointments. She contacted all of these patients, numbering in the hundreds, mainly by 'phone. She explained to each person that their scan would proceed, if they wanted it, and where their scan would be performed. She was empathetic, patient and reassured so many patients who were worried about attending hospital during those worrying times. When they asked her to, she spoke to family members for patients too anxious to properly comprehend the forced changes to our service provision. For those people who wanted to stay at home despite their medical condition, she again reassured them that their appointment would remain within the bookings system until they wanted to attend. She also maintained the 'waiting-list' this created, and no patients were 'lost' during this process. Karen was at the forefront of communicating to patients how the CT service was being adapted. She ensured those who needed scans, and were willing to attend the hospital, were fully informed of their options. Karen has a husband on the vulnerable list but she still came to work every day of her 3-day week without fail. She made notes so colleagues could continue the task on the 2 days she was not at work. Once informed we could resume a more normal service in August 2020, with out-patients coming back to DVH, clinics increasing their workload etc., she continued to contact patients directly with information about their CT scan appointment. The Christmas 2020 lockdown meant we had to reduce out-patient appointments again. Karen, as she had done before, maintained the CT diary to ensure we continued to provide an efficient and effective service to all users. We are now back, once again, to an almost pre-COVID service. Karen played a significant role throughout the pandemic in ensuring we scanned every 2ww, Urgent and anniversary scan patient. I have the greatest respect for her commitment to DVH patients, to the CT scanning service and to her colleagues, all of which she unfailingly supported throughout these unprecedented times.