We are proud of our employees, and we want to show it!

Campbell County Health is proud of its employees, and we want the CCH family and the Campbell County community to know about the good work that they do for this organization. In the coming months, you'll see a few changes happening with employee recognition.

For starters, (at least) once a month, you'll see us post a Department Discovery, which will give you information on what that department does in the organization. We'll include pictures, updates on one project that the team is working on in the coming year, as well as let out some of the department's "best kept secrets".

You'll also see "Thanks for working here Thursday" posts, where CCH hopes to highlight one employee each week and tell you a little bit about them, such as what inspired them to work in healthcare and what Excellence Every Day means to them.

And, you’ll soon be hearing more about our Legends program, which will showcase the CCH employees who exceed expectations and make a difference in the lives of those we serve every day.

To give you a taste of what we're talking about, check out January's Department Discovery, featuring the Laboratory and Pathology, below.

Department Discovery—January: Laboratory and Pathology
The CCH Laboratory, managed by Lynn Todd, MLS (ASCP), is located on the first floor of Campbell County Health. Staffed with 15 Medical Technicians/Technologists and 13 certified phlebotomists, the lab collects samples for approximately 1,000 different tests. Meditech 6.x, CCMH's electronic health record system, will require building 773 individual tests for the tests done in-house and 1,030 for the tests sent to reference labs. Last year the Laboratory performed 37,596 blood counts and 37,558 medical profiles, and handled a total of 351,745 specimens performing a total of 1,022,668 tests.

Dr. William B. Woodward is the medical director of the laboratory and our pathologist. Pathology is included with the Laboratory and has three employees. Pathology processes specimens, such as tissue from biopsies or organs and body fluids, from the Surgical Services department and local doctor's offices. These specimens are then checked for abnormalities and help your doctor diagnose and treat potential ailments. Having a Pathology department in Gillette allows doctors to give patients a faster diagnosis, thus they begin to feel better quicker.

According the Lynn, the most exciting project the departments are working on in 2015 is to bring in molecular testing for fecal pathogens, which will test for 19 bacterial, viral and parasitic agents of infection, and it will be done in one hour versus three days (there's that faster diagnosis part!). Also worth mentioning: In 2014, our Laboratory took first place for the American Society of Clinical Laboratory Scientists National Laboratory Week activities—so you know that they have a lot of fun working together!

A big round of applause to the Laboratory and Pathology department staff! Thank you for all that you do for CCH and for keeping our community healthy.

You can learn more about the CCH Laboratory and Pathology departments at www.ccmh.net/Lab.