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Awards of Excellence Presented

Release Date: 01/16/2014

Two staff members at Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island were recently awarded the annual Richard P. Welch Award for Continued Excellence in Patient and Family Centered Care.

 

Established in 2006 by the family and friends of the late Richard “Dick” Welch, the award was inspired by his unwavering commitment to excellence in patient and family centered care during his 35-year tenure serving Women & Infants as a trustee, board chair and chief operating officer. Awards are presented annually for a clinical and non-clinical employee.

 

The awards were presented by Mary Welch, Dick Welch’s wife, and Mary Pat Denci, his daughter, to Giovanna “Jenny” Todisco, LPN (clinical), and Heather O’Reilly (non-clinical).

 

Todisco of Johnston, a licensed practical nurse in the Emergency Department, has worked at Women & Infants for nearly 54 years. One of her colleagues noted, “Whether she is caring for a scared mother having her first baby or a terminally ill oncology patient, Jenny always takes the time to hear the patient’s and family’s story and adapts her nursing care to meet their individual need.”

 

O’Reilly of North Smithfield has worked in Women & Infants’ Food and Nutrition Department for 17 years. In nominating her for this honor, one of her colleagues noted, “No matter the circumstances, Heather understands and takes customer service very seriously. Heather is one employee who demonstrates how far the human touch can reach.”

 

 

About Women & Infants Hospital 

Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, a Care New England hospital, is one of the nation’s leading specialty hospitals for women and newborns. A major teaching affiliate of The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University for obstetrics, gynecology and newborn pediatrics, as well as a number of specialized programs in women’s medicine, Women & Infants is the 9th largest stand-alone obstetrical service in the country and the largest in New England with approximately 8,500 deliveries per year. A Designated Baby-Friendly® USA hospital, U.S.News & World Report 2014-15 Best Children’s Hospital in Neonatology and a 2014 Leapfrog Top Hospital, in 2009 Women & Infants opened what was at the time the country’s largest, single-family room neonatal intensive care unit.

Women & Infants and Brown offer fellowship programs in gynecologic oncology, maternal-fetal medicine, urogynecology and reconstructive pelvic surgery, neonatal-perinatal medicine, pediatric and perinatal pathology, gynecologic pathology and cytopathology, and reproductive endocrinology and infertility. It is home to the nation’s first mother-baby perinatal psychiatric partial hospital, as well as the nation’s only fellowship program in obstetric medicine.

Women & Infants has been designated as a Breast Imaging Center of Excellence by the American College of Radiography; a Center of Excellence in Minimally Invasive Gynecology; a Center of Biomedical Research Excellence by the National Institutes of Health (NIH); and a Neonatal Resource Services Center of Excellence. It is one of the largest and most prestigious research facilities in high risk and normal obstetrics, gynecology and newborn pediatrics in the nation, and is a member of the National Cancer Institute’s Gynecologic Oncology Group and the Pelvic Floor Disorders Network.