DAISY Award for CHMC Main Infusion Center

Successful delivery of quality cancer health care requires the participation of many people: office receptionists, medical assistants, laboratory personnel, radiology technicians, pharmacists, and physician extenders, among others, across multiple disciplines. Attempting to rank these contributions according to importance is a fool’s errand at best. But few will object if I make special mention of the dedicated, highly trained, skilled, and selfless nurses who provide infusion services. CalvertHealth Medical Center is blessed to have a group of some of the best infusion nurses I have encountered in 30 years of clinical practice. It is my distinct privilege and pleasure to number them among my colleagues and friends.

I could not begin to count the occasions on which patients have returned to my office singing the praises of the infusion nurses, justifiably so. Kind, compassionate, and competent, these medical professionals turn what could be a grim necessity into a health- and life-affirming experience. Whether they are administering and supervising chemotherapy, or giving immune-based treatments, or providing intravenous hydration, or monitoring blood transfusions, or simply checking the functionality of indwelling venous catheters, the nurses of the Infusion Center perform every day a vital service without which all the treatment plans in the world accomplish nothing. They are in many respects the human face of cancer care, delivered according to all the ideals of the nursing profession. They care for the entire human being, a person in total, not merely the body reposing in the treatment chair. A warm blanket, a plumped pillow, a cool drink, a reassuring hand placed on a shoulder. Because of my own experience, I can readily affirm what others tell me, for I have also received these tender mercies. Perhaps it is odd to relate, but I recall with actual fondness the six days scattered over 18 weeks I spent under their care. Royalty would get no less pampering.

That I am not alone in my admiration has quite recently received a broader affirmation. CalvertHealth has participated for several years in the DAISY program, which recognizes excellence in nursing care, typically in well-deserved individual cases. In 2022, for the first time, the medical center has granted a group award, an acknowledgement that a team of dedicated nursing professionals together exemplify the best in patient care. If you have the opportunity to visit the Infusion Center, you will see a bright green banner proudly hanging above the nursing station, announcing to all that in this place the very best are dedicated to serving the most deserving, which are all persons who have the good fortune—and the good sense—to seek their care here.