(Aug. 18, 2023) – The Kansas Hospital Association's Health Care Worker of the Year Award highlights hospital employees who have made a significant contribution to the betterment of their hospital. These individuals are nominated for this award because they routinely go above and beyond the call of duty.
Kristi Roush fulfills two primary and important roles at Holton Community Hospital. She is a director who oversees and champions a wide variety of programs, including employee recognition, service line growth and expansion, and covers after-hours ultrasound imaging for the hospital.
Roush started as director of radiology and soon pivoted to become director of ancillary services. Since then, she has proven to be a great leader through her high-level involvement with Service Excellence Program (an initiative now in its tenth year) serving as the Service Excellence Advisory Team super co-coach and the Service Excellence Program assistant director.
Under Roush's leadership, the radiology department experienced a volume growth of 15 percent and revenue growth of 27 percent. She had oversight of new service line additions – DEXA bone density, CT lung cancer screenings, and she directed equipment upgrades including state-of-the-art digital mammography and a fully digital X-ray suite.
Roush has worked tirelessly to promote behavior that provides an exceptional patient experience, such as escorting patients to their next stop. For her colleagues, she collaborated with department managers to incorporate tactics to enhance work/life balance, helped develop creative staffing work schedules to accommodate staffing shortages and led an initiative to address staff burnout. She also revitalized the volunteer program at HCH after COVID closed it.
Roush has been instrumental in planning and coordinating a Healthcare Academy program. The academy accepts area students to work as volunteer interns through the summer to provide exposure to a wide variety of health care careers. At the end of the program, each participant received a certificate of completion and a summary of volunteer hours. The goal is to promote rural health care careers among area high school youth.
Roush will be recognized, along with other Health Care Worker of the Year nominees, during the KHA Awards Luncheon at the 2023 KHA Annual Convention, Thursday, Sept. 7, at the Hyatt Regency Wichita/Century II Convention Center in Wichita.
--Shelby Stacy