HCA Announces National 2009 Frist Humanitarian Awards

13th Apr, 2010

On April 12, 2010, HCA announced the recipients of the 2009 Frist Humanitarian Awards. Honored at a ceremony in Nashville were Judy Williams, a volunteer at Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, CA; Carianna Johnson, a registered nurse at StoneCrest Medical Center in Smyrna, TN; and Kevin Smith, D.D.S., an oral and maxillofacial surgeon at Oklahoma University Medical Center in Oklahoma City, OK.

Established in 1971, the awards honor outstanding humanitarian and volunteer activities of HCA employees, volunteers, and medical staff members. The Frist Humanitarian Awards are given annually in recognition of the caring spirit and philanthropic work of the late Dr. Thomas Frist, Sr., a founder of HCA. These three three national recipients were selected from more than 215 local honorees across the country.

The Frist Humanitarian Award is the highest honor given to HCA employees, volunteers, and medical staff members. The aware includes a $5,000 donation to the charity of the recipient’s choice and $5,000 in cash for the employee and volunteer. The medical staff honoree receives a $10,000 donation to the charity of his choice.

2009 Honoree Judy Williams

Judy Williams began helping patients when, as a teenager who was told she was too young to volunteer, she convinced a hospital to start a student volunteer program. She went on to spend 30 years as a nurse, an experience she calls “the best career anybody could have.” Her nursing career was cut short after undergoing quadruple bypass surgery. For the last eight years, Judy has been a volunteer at Los Robles Hospital’s emergency department.

Although she’s retired, Judy doesn’t have much free time on her hands. She still maintains her nursing license, spearheads community health fairs, and organizes flu shot clinics. She also volunteers at the Conejo Free Clinic and the Hospice of the Conejo Valley. In addition, she serves as president of the Los Robles Hospital Volunteer Board of Directors.

“Judy epitomizes those enduring values – compassion and patients-first focus – upon which HCA was established more than 40 years ago,” said HCA chairman and CEO Richard M. Bracken. “She is beloved by her Los Robles Hospital colleagues, and we’re proud she is part of the HCA family.”

2009 Honoree Carianna Johnson

Carianna Johnson, a registered nurse in StoneCrest Medical Center’s labor and delivery unit, has always known caring for others is her calling. In 2003, despite the demands of her career and her roles as a wife and a mother of five children, she started volunteering with Annabelle’s Wish, a nonprofit organization that provides basic necessities to Chinese orphans. She’s taken about a dozen self-funded trips to China, volunteering on projects like painting orphanages and distributing blankets and diapers. She has also traveled to Africa where she helped orphans and provided AIDS education to HIV-positive patients and assisted with surgeries, working long hours without the benefit of modern medical advances. More recently, Carianna partnered with Dr. Afram Ikejiani to launch Humanity Bridge, an international nonprofit organization that seeks to provide medical care, education, and orphanage support.

“With single-minded purpose, Carianna has dedicated her life to helping and caring for others,” said Bracken. “The impact she’s having on people throughout the world is a reminder that individuals become caregivers simply because this profession is an extension of who they are. We appreciate Carianna’s devotion to the cause of helping others and the example she sets for all of us.”

2009 Honoree Dr. Kevin Smith, DDS

Dr. Kevin Smith’s passion is helping children grow up to have happy, normal lives. The oral and maxillofacial surgeon has dedicated his life and his practice to cleft lip and palate research and treatment. In fact, he donates his own money and resources to travel to Tecate, Mexico, several times a year to perform life-altering operations for children in need.

At OU’s Department of Oral and Maxilofacial Surgery, Dr. Smith helped form a state-of-the-art cleft palate team. In addition, he created the Oklahoma Cleft Support Group and started A Smile for a Child Foundation. The foundation provides financial assistance and emotional support to children with cleft lip and palate and other craniofacial anomalies.

“Dr. Smith has generously given his time and surgical skill as well as personal resources to improve the lives of children,” said Bracken. “The impact he has had on so many lives is an inspiration and reminiscent of the example set by Dr. Frist so many years ago.”

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