Oklahoma City Area Director’s Awards

Artwork by Harvey Pratt and Leslie Pate of Tribes 131 Fine Art Gallery, Norman, OK Oklahoma City Area IHS Director’s Awards

By Tonia Gist, Community Relations Specialist

The Oklahoma City Area Indian Health Services Director’s Awards recognizes the accomplishments of individuals and groups working in Indian Health Service, Tribal and Urban Health Programs. These individuals have been essential to raising the physical, mental, social, and spiritual health in our American Indian community to the highest level. We are proud to announce the Oklahoma City Area IHS Director’s Award recipients from IHCRC:

Peer Recognition Award Urban

Virginia Cox Virginia Cox has worked for IHCRC for nine years and is currently the Patient Data Entry Clerk. Her work contributes to the accuracy of patient medical records and ensuring IHCRC achieves its mission statement goal of providing quality comprehensive health care to Tulsa area Indian people. Virginia’s daily accomplishment of timely and accurate data entry aides in the pharmacy back billing process, which in turn contributes to the financial resources of IHCRC. Virginia is integral in helping ensure the highest degree of accuracy of patient records.

Merit Award Urban

Melissa Hudmon, Psy. D. Melissa Hudmon, Psy. D., a Postdoctoral Psychology Fellow at Indian Health Care, developed and implemented an orientation program for all patients waiting for Behavioral Health Services. Dr. Hudmon completed a CQI study from the implementation of the orientation program and used the process and data to develop the integrated care program in IHCRC’s Medical Department. Through this service, all patients are provided access to Behavioral Health in the Medical Department.

Exceptional Group Performance Award Clinical

Psychiatric Team Emmanuel Roman, MD, Joseph Kennedy, MD and Faith Miller, PMHNPBC make up the psychiatric team at Tulsa. These clinicians provide consistent medication management services that align with the mission of our clinic for providing comprehensive care. Doing so has allowed the clinic to avoid relying on primary care physicians and outside prescribers to fill medications. It is often difficult to find an outside facility that provides psychiatric services and is in close enough proximity for the patients to get to appointments. In addition to seeing scheduled patients, they each provide weekly times for walk in patients and hospital discharge appointments.

Exceptional Group Performance Award Non-Clinical

MSPI Under the direction of Aly Speers, LCSW, Leah Speer and Timothy Shadlow make up the MSPI team at Indian Health Care. This program plays a vital role in helping our American Indian youth and their families be successful throughout life. Through the program, IHCRC assists our youth in learning about substance abuse and suicide prevention, mental wellness and stability. The students are encouraged to talk about healthy boundaries and teen dating violence. The MSPI program teaches our youth more about their culture, building self-confidence, and improving the quality of life for themselves and future generations.

Individual Excellence in Customer Service Award Urban

Timi Pitts Timi Pitts served as medical receptionist at IHCRC. Most recently she joined the Green Team assisting with the social service needs of our patients. She is known for her compassion and dedication to customer service. Although Timi stays busy checking in patients and verifying insurance, she takes time to listen and tries to help every patient. She does a fantastic job guiding patients through our clinic processes and determining the need for referrals to our social services team. On numerous occasions, Timi has used her knowledge of sign language to assist our patients who are deaf and hearing impaired. Timi is customer focused and she excels in compassion and patient care.