Category: Sister Nancy Surma
Sister Nancy Surma
By. Sister Nancy Surma
Health care is a complicated business. Every health care organization has people employed in a variety of capacities. It takes not only doctors and nurses but a whole range of persons with a variety of gifts and talents to provide the services needed to address illness, aging and accidents. Some of the positions involve clinical skills such as occupational, physical, and respiratory therapists, nurse aides, lab and radiology techs, and phlebotomists. Chaplains also are an important part of the care team. Many other persons contribute in support services—housekeeping, maintenance, billing, and security to name a few.
The corporate office of Sylvania Franciscan Health is also a place where people with a variety of experiences and expertise come together. Senior management includes those skilled in strategic planning, mission integration, finance, quality/risk management and human relations. Behind all these areas are the persons who answer the phones, type out untold number and kind of documents, get the mail posted, greet visitors, arrange meetings, file records and generally hold the office together. As we start Administrative Assistants Week, it is only right to point out the role these persons play in linking the services our office extends to our ministries in Texas, Ohio and Kentucky. "We are many parts; we are all one body."
I want to recognize in particular an administrative assistant who has served long and well. Helen Pyles was the second employee hired when what was then Franciscan Services Corporation (now Sylvania Franciscan Health) was formed in 1984. She has been the face of the organization to those who called or visited ever since. Helen is retiring at the end of April after nearly 28 years of service. Day after day, month after month, year after year, Helen tended to her job, offering the same level of respect and service to anyone who needed her help. Her contributions came not in anything splashy or newsworthy, but rather in the attention to daily routine and care of people. As she leaves, we can say “Well done, good and faithful servant.”