Adventist Health Bakersfield | You + Us | Winter 2020

7 It’s good to get reminders now and then of how truly special the Adventist Health Bakersfield team is. Take a look! Care that comes from the heart We’re so very proud of earning the American College of Cardiology Platinum Performance Achievement Award six straight years in a row. It truly speaks to our consistency in quality heart and stroke care. We also received Gold Level Recognition in the American Heart Association’s 2019 Workplace Health Achievement Index. It recognizes employers who excel at creating a culture of good health at work. And we recently honored our emergency medicine and cardiovascular leaders and staff for more than 10 years of service in our award-winning Chest Pain Center and STEMI Receiving Center. A big thank you to Todd Peterson, DO, and Viral Mehta, MD, our amazing physician leaders. They make it all happen! Marcher Thompson, MD, is now part of the Adventist Health AIS Cancer Center team. She is a radiation oncologist. See the grades for all Kern County hospitals at hospitalsafetygrade.org . “Mr. Caneta had told us some of his favorite music artists, so we were trying to play ones that he enjoyed,” says Bonds. The team uses iPads loaded with Spotify and Pandora for selecting music, as well as controlling the room’s ambient light choices—special features made possible by a donation from the Adventist Health Bakersfield Foundation. When he came in for his next treatment and got comfortable on the table, Caneta noticed the LED lights were purple. “I began to think, ‘Could it be?’ That’s when I heard the music click over and heard those all too familiar notes for Prince’s ‘Purple Rain!’” he recalls. “I had the biggest smile during the whole treatment. Through the entire weekend, I told all my friends, and a few even teared up when I told them what those girls had cooked up!” Kindness counts Caneta received his cancer diagnosis in September 2018. After nine weeks and 45 treatments, he is doing well and enjoying life with his family: his wife, Shelly, and their two grown children, Zane, 25, and Jorie, 23. They even ventured to Italy over the summer. But Caneta will never forget the two radiation therapists he fondly calls his “A-Team.” His heartfelt thank-you letter led to the two women’s receiving Adventist Health Bakersfield’s Sacred Work in Action award, which recognizes employees who find creative ways to live out the health system’s mission: Living God’s love by inspiring health, wholeness and hope. Putting patient safety first Adventist Health Bakersfield is the only hospital in Kern County to have earned an “A” Hospital Safety Grade from The Leapfrog Group five years in a row. The Leapfrog Group assigns letter grades to hospitals nationwide based on their performance in preventing medical errors, infections and other harm to patients in their care. “Every day, our staff come ready to provide high- quality, compassionate care that exemplifies our mission of inspiring our community to live life marked by health, wholeness and hope,” says Sharlet Briggs, president of Adventist Health Bakersfield. “That’s quite a report card!” Precious medals Adding to our team of cancer experts