Katie Keeney is 2015 DAISY Award Recipient

Pictured Left to Right: Eli Yutzy, Mary Yutzy, Angel Keeney, Slater Keeney, Katie Keeney, and Aaron Keeney

Katie Keeney, RN, was the recipient of the 2015 DAISY Award this year. Decatur County Hospital, along with the Mercy Medical Center in Des Moines, offers this award to their nursing staff. Nominations were taken through the end of April.  Keeney received three nominations—all three nominations reflecting Katie’s teamwork, professionalism, efficiency, work ethic, conscientiousness, positive attitude and job performance.

Keeney was recognized in front of her peers during the celebration BBQ during hospital week on Friday, May 15. She was awarded a plaque and several gifts. Katie was joined by her Mother and Father, two children, and husband, Aaron Keeney, who is also an RN at Decatur County Hospital.

“Katie is never one to say ‘it’s not my job,’ she is up and helping out everywhere, and at any time she is needed,” stated Andi Masters, Chief Nursing Officer for Decatur County Hospital, “She has helped out in the Cardiopulmonary Department, is always out on the Med-Surg floor, helps out in the emergency room, and always assists wherever she can. Katie is energetic and passionate about patient care, she is thoughtful, compassionate and caring in all situations.”

The DAISY Award is an international program that rewards and celebrates the extraordinary clinical skill and compassionate care given by nurses every day. Decatur County Hospital is proud to be a DAISY Award partner, recognizing one of our nurses with this special honor annually.

About the Daisy Foundation: The DAISY Foundation was established in 1999 by the family of J. Patrick Barnes who died of complications of the auto-immune disease Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia Purpura (ITP) at the age of 33. (DAISY is an acronym for diseases attacking the immune system.) During Pat’s 8 week hospitalization, his family was awestruck by the care and compassion his nurses provided not only to Pat but to everyone in his family. So one of the goals they set in creating a Foundation in Pat’s memory was to recognize extraordinary nurses everywhere who make an enormous difference in the lives of so many people by the super-human work they do every day.