Jim Graves, Executive Director of the Departments of Respiratory Therapy and Neurodiagnostics at JPS Health Network, has been named Respiratory Care Manager of the Year by the Texas Society for Respiratory Care.
It was an honor that left the seven-year veteran of the health network both surprised and grateful.
Hidden away on its Fort Worth main campus lies the nerve center of telephonic communication at JPS Health Network.
There, an incredible maze of thousands of wires lines the walls and the ceiling, a blue and red twist of spaghetti. It’s Joe Richardson’s job to make sure all those lines are correctly connected. His formal title is telecommunications technician. But to the people who summon him for help whenever they need assistance in making a connection, he’s more commonly known as Joe the Phone Guy.
You don’t often see them. But the Tarrant County Hospital District Police Department communications officers are on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week, looking out for you.
In a dimly lit room behind a locked door, the communications officers – also known as dispatchers -- are constantly vigilant, scanning two walls of monitors for any sign of trouble. At the same time, they’re working the phones and radios on which they answer calls of distress and queries for information, sending the right people to the right place whenever they’re needed.
Sometimes it just takes a moment to put yourself on the path to a better day.
That’s the philosophy behind a new, twice a day meeting for both patients and team members in the Trinity Springs Pavilion at JPS Health Network.
“Since June, we’ve been holding what we call Mindful Moments,” said Lee Ann Franklin, Executive Director of Spiritual Care and Ethics. “It’s an opportunity to concentrate on self-care. Hopefully, these gatherings will give people some new tools to cope with those things.”