The newly elected board chairwoman for the Southside and Dodson Avenue Community Health Centers said Thursday that she usually prefers to remain in the background but is eager to give back to the health centers where she's received treatment for years.
ERLANGER BOARD LEADERSHIP 2011Chairman: Dan QuarlesVice chairman: Donnie HutchersonSecretary: Kim White
Joanie Gammell, an office manager who lives in St. Elmo, said after Erlanger Health System's monthly board meeting that she aims to foster stronger relationships between health center board members and Erlanger hospital leaders in the coming year.
"I just want that rapport there," she said.
Gammell said she was asked to be a member of the board three years ago, and she now takes the reins from former chairman Joe Reed. The health centers, which receive funding from Erlanger and the federal government, provide primary care in underserved neighborhoods regardless of patients' ability to pay.
Also at Erlanger's board meeting, health system board leaders all were re-elected to their positions for the 2011 calendar year. Dan Quarles will remain board chairman, with Donnie Hutcherson as vice chairman and Kim White as secretary.
The hospital's annual radio-telethon to benefit pediatric cancer patients is ongoing this week, said Chief Development Officer Betsy Chapin Taylor, at the meeting.
She presented a video of a 14-year-old patient with a rare bone cancer whose leg was recently amputated. The patient, who read a poem about what she's learned from her experience battling cancer, will be one of 26 young patients interviewed on air as part of the radio-thon.
The board also gave final approval for a 2 percent across-the-board raise for hospital staff, excluding 17 executive-level managers.
The raise is retroactive to July 11, so employees will receive additional pay for time worked since that date in a lump-sum paycheck in December, said Hutcherson at the meeting.