Carle Health is dedicated to supporting care even outside our hospital and clinic walls. That takes both patient-facing and behind-the-scenes team members bringing outside-the-box thinking to improve the care experience.
When the patient access and laboratory teams at Carle Richland Memorial Hospital in Olney wanted to register patients, help them sign up for MyCarle and process lab work at an off-site community event, they turned to the Carle Richland Information Technology team.
The IT team set up the Internet connection, brought the hardware and used specialized networking equipment to ensure the connection to the Carle Health medical record was protected and stable outside the hospital.
The result was improved efficiency for the patient access and lab teams, a better experience for the patients and a more successful community event.
Carle Richland IT team’s successful thinking outside the box earned it the Carle Health 2025 Annual Way to Be! Team award.
Way to Be! is the Carle Health program in which team members recognize each other for living Carle Health Values of Accountability, Compassion, Excellence, Inclusivity and Integrity.
During 2025, the organization received 27,657 Way to Be! submissions.
Each quarter, the Carle Health Reward and Recognition Committee selects quarterly winners representing each Value, as well as Leader and Team winners. From the quarterly winners, one nominee is selected to represent each Value and Carle Health team members vote for the annual Values winner. The Leader and Team winners are selected by the Reward and Recognition Committee.
Healthfest, an annual event co-hosted by Carle Richland and Olney Central College on the college campus, brings together a wide range of organizations and businesses. Carle Richland offers free or discounted health screenings, lab testing and wellness information.
Historically, registration was completed on paper during the event, and staff returned to the hospital to enter the information into Epic, the Carle Health medical record. Lab staff hand-labeled each sample. Now, with IT support and real-time Epic access, patients are registered, signed up for MyCarle and lab orders are entered at Healthfest. Some patients receive their lab results before leaving the event, improving the patient experience.
“It’s rewarding to know that our work helps support an event that promotes wellness, connection and community,” Tim Gillespie, IT director the Olney Service Area, said.
Winning the 2025 Annual Way to Be! Leader award was Sonja Stalter, practice care manager for rural health clinics in Lacon, Princeville and Chillicothe.
When a patient at the Lacon clinic had a question about insurance coverage for a vaccine, Stalter made sure the patient had coverage and received medical care.
Later, she followed up and found there was a delay in the claims process. She investigated and followed up on who should be billed. The patient’s secondary insurer then appropriately paid for the patient’s vaccine.
The billing was corrected and, most importantly, “The patient was happy to get this preventative vaccine,” Stalter said.
Winning the 2025 Annual Way to Be! Values (Integrity) award was Jeff Fink, certified pharmacy technician in the inpatient pharmacy at Carle BroMenn Medical Center in Normal and Carle Eureka Hospital.
Fink recognized an opportunity and received approval for a plan to improve two pharmacy processes to make medicines more quickly available for patients. Not only do patients benefit but the resulting efficiencies saved time and money and improved team member morale.
“I take pride in the work I do,” Fink said. “I enjoy finding creative solutions to problems.”
“Jeff’s story shows the impact of care teams across the organization,” Tony Beoletto, PharmD, pharmacy operations supervisor at BroMenn and Eureka, said. “Ultimately, Jeff’s work improves patient care. All our work impacts patient care.”
Join our team
Carle Health embeds its Values and behavior standards into the care and support that we provide patients, visitors and team members.
If you’d like to work for an organization in which team members have a heart to make things better and are encouraged to think outside the box, click here.
When the patient access and laboratory teams at Carle Richland Memorial Hospital in Olney wanted to register patients, help them sign up for MyCarle and process lab work at an off-site community event, they turned to the Carle Richland Information Technology team.
The IT team set up the Internet connection, brought the hardware and used specialized networking equipment to ensure the connection to the Carle Health medical record was protected and stable outside the hospital.
The result was improved efficiency for the patient access and lab teams, a better experience for the patients and a more successful community event.
Carle Richland IT team’s successful thinking outside the box earned it the Carle Health 2025 Annual Way to Be! Team award.
Way to Be! is the Carle Health program in which team members recognize each other for living Carle Health Values of Accountability, Compassion, Excellence, Inclusivity and Integrity.
During 2025, the organization received 27,657 Way to Be! submissions.
Each quarter, the Carle Health Reward and Recognition Committee selects quarterly winners representing each Value, as well as Leader and Team winners. From the quarterly winners, one nominee is selected to represent each Value and Carle Health team members vote for the annual Values winner. The Leader and Team winners are selected by the Reward and Recognition Committee.
Healthfest, an annual event co-hosted by Carle Richland and Olney Central College on the college campus, brings together a wide range of organizations and businesses. Carle Richland offers free or discounted health screenings, lab testing and wellness information.
Historically, registration was completed on paper during the event, and staff returned to the hospital to enter the information into Epic, the Carle Health medical record. Lab staff hand-labeled each sample. Now, with IT support and real-time Epic access, patients are registered, signed up for MyCarle and lab orders are entered at Healthfest. Some patients receive their lab results before leaving the event, improving the patient experience.
“It’s rewarding to know that our work helps support an event that promotes wellness, connection and community,” Tim Gillespie, IT director the Olney Service Area, said.
Winning the 2025 Annual Way to Be! Leader award was Sonja Stalter, practice care manager for rural health clinics in Lacon, Princeville and Chillicothe.
When a patient at the Lacon clinic had a question about insurance coverage for a vaccine, Stalter made sure the patient had coverage and received medical care.
Later, she followed up and found there was a delay in the claims process. She investigated and followed up on who should be billed. The patient’s secondary insurer then appropriately paid for the patient’s vaccine.
The billing was corrected and, most importantly, “The patient was happy to get this preventative vaccine,” Stalter said.
Winning the 2025 Annual Way to Be! Values (Integrity) award was Jeff Fink, certified pharmacy technician in the inpatient pharmacy at Carle BroMenn Medical Center in Normal and Carle Eureka Hospital.
Fink recognized an opportunity and received approval for a plan to improve two pharmacy processes to make medicines more quickly available for patients. Not only do patients benefit but the resulting efficiencies saved time and money and improved team member morale.
“I take pride in the work I do,” Fink said. “I enjoy finding creative solutions to problems.”
“Jeff’s story shows the impact of care teams across the organization,” Tony Beoletto, PharmD, pharmacy operations supervisor at BroMenn and Eureka, said. “Ultimately, Jeff’s work improves patient care. All our work impacts patient care.”
Join our team
Carle Health embeds its Values and behavior standards into the care and support that we provide patients, visitors and team members.
If you’d like to work for an organization in which team members have a heart to make things better and are encouraged to think outside the box, click here.
Categories: Culture of Quality
Tags: annual, awards, BroMenn, Eureka, Experience, IT, Lacon, patient, pharmacy, recognition, Reward, Richland, rural