Dot House honors ‘heroes’ who keep health center running well

Dorchester House Facilities Department (From left to right): Paul Graham, Robert Shields, Inmar Valenzuela, Brian Colomey (Absent from photo: Carol McGill, Bernard Nurse)Dorchester House Facilities Department (From left to right): Paul Graham, Robert Shields, Inmar Valenzuela, Brian Colomey (Absent from photo: Carol McGill, Bernard Nurse)

The challenge lay before the committee: To celebrate National Health Center Week, how to narrow a list of more than 25 nominees and identify 6 Dorchester House Health Center Heroes, one for each day of the service week? There were so many people who deserved recognition for going above and beyond their regular job descriptions in order to assure that Dorchester House provides the highest quality health care to its community. Finally, the decision was made. In addition to 5 individuals, the whole Facilities Department would be named together as a Hero.

The center’s Facilities Team – Manager Carol McGill, Brian Colomey, Paul Graham, Bernard Nurse, Robert Shields, and Inmar Valenzuela – is known as much for their positive attitude as they are for their high-quality results. They provide excellent internal and external customer service, and always go above and beyond their responsibilities of keeping Dorchester House a warm and inviting facility, spotless in its appearance.

The committee also named 5 individuals as Health Center Heroes. Rosemary Gallagher is the longest-serving member of the Board of Directors and for years, as a volunteer, has been a mainstay of our food pantry as well as run our seniors’ social activities. Marika Hewes, who joined Dot House a mere 3 years ago as a case manager, provides comprehensive and compassionate services to adolescents and their families, and has become our food pantry coordinator, playing a vital role in bringing better, more nutritious foods to our community. Julita Mir, MD has been practicing at Dot House for 11 years, and is the very model of what it means to be patient-centered. She goes above and beyond the norm in making time to follow up with her own patients, and will rearrange her schedule to help her colleagues with coverage for patient sessions.

No employee is more visible than the registration assistants who check in the patients, and none are more welcoming and pleasant than Maria Ortiz, who registers patients in the Behavioral Health Department. Maria expertly balances the needs of the patients and the providers, and is universally described as “unflappable.” And finally, Mike Paciulan has worked as Information Technology Site Coordinator at Dorchester House for over 6 years. He is an adept problem solver, but even more importantly, he approaches each and every employee with the same level of respect and consideration.


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