Mt Ascutney Hospital and Health Center (MAHHC) has announced the selection of Robin Hakala, BS, MSN, RN, as Employee of the Month for October, 2018. Hakala is an Educator in the MAHHC Department of Education. Hakala is responsible for administering orientation for new staff, as well as participating in staff competency days that provide clinical education to nursing staff, implementation of the Hospital’s Resuscitation Quality Improvement (RQI) system to maintain CPR skills, and classes presented by the Education Department. She has also assisted the MAHHC Cardiac Rehabilitation Department with its certification process, working on policies and procedures.
Hakala’s supervisor, Amy Visser-Lynch, Director of Staff Education, says that Hakala is “the glue that holds the Education Department together. She gives it her all,” says Visser-Lynch, “and she continues to smile through whatever is directed her way. Robin is a dedicated and caring nurse, and an asset to Mt Ascutney Hospital and Health Center.”
Hakala spent six years as a special education teacher before returning to school to become a nurse. Over a 33-year career, she has worked as a school nurse, staff nurse in Medical-Surgical units, Labor and Delivery, Newborn Nursery, and Oncology. She also served eight years in the United States Air Force as an officer.
Hakala, from Charlestown, New Hampshire, has been an MAHHC employee since January, 2016.
About Mt Ascutney Hospital and Health Center
Founded in 1933, Mt Ascutney Hospital and Health Center (MAHHC) is a not-for-profit community hospital network in Vermont including the critical access-designated Mt Ascutney Hospital and Historic Homes of Runnemede, a senior residential care campus, in Windsor, as well as the Ottauquechee Health Center in Woodstock. Affiliated with the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health System, MAHHC provides primary care and a comprehensive suite of specialty services, along with 25 inpatient beds, a therapeutic pool and an acclaimed, fully modernized 10-bed Acute Rehabilitation Center. Mt Ascutney Hospital and Health Center is dedicated to improving the lives of those it serves and is at the hub of a wide network of community resources that have partnered to cover gaps in services and improve overall population health. One of the largest employers in the area, MAHHC acknowledges its employees as its greatest asset and has been recognized by the Governor’s Office with an Excellence in Worksite Wellness award.
Mt Ascutney Hospital and Health Center is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF), is a recent recipient of Best Practice recognition by the National Rural Health Association (NRHA) for health care quality, and is recognized by the American Hospital Association (AHA) as one of the “Most Wired” hospitals for integration of technology to boost clinical performance. The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) has awarded MAHHC with Level 3 status, the highest level of medical home designation.