Megan Garro

PT Student from the University of Dayton

February 2024 Student of the Month winner is Megan Garro. Megan showed exceptional dedication to the Summa Commitments during her clinical at the Akron Campus. Megan received the following nomination: 
 
She always brings great treatment ideas and wants to deliver the best care to make patients as successful as possible. She has received many comments from other disciplines about how well she interacts with patients, including Dawn from speech therapy who commented on the fact that she is "confident without sounding arrogant" and "appears very comfortable when interacting with patients." 
 
Megan consistently provided individualized personal care to each of her patients and showed passion for the care she provided while here on clinical. Congratulations to Megan for this well-deserved recognition.  

Stephanie Vargas

PT Student from Ohio University

June’s Student of the Month winner is Stephanie Vargas. Stephanie demonstrated our Summa commitments during her clinical at our Akron Campus. She received a Summa Star compliment from a nurse after a personalized interaction with a patient: 

“Today a PT student named Stephanie Vargas did an amazing job working with a primarily Spanish speaking patient. The patient speaks broken English and Stephanie did a great job at breaking a barrier towards his care by speaking with him in Spanish. This patient felt so comfortable with Stephanie and expressed his gratitude with the staff. It is important to remember that a difference in language communication is a large barrier within healthcare. Stephanie was able to eliminate that barrier for that brief time with the patient this should be recognized. Stephanie, great job for decreasing the divide in patient care!”

Stephanie was recognized as providing Personalized Care by speaking the patient’s native language. She also took Ownership by identifying the problem and being a part of the solution to provide the patient with the best care. Stephanie Served with Passion by going above and beyond for this patient. 

Taylor Stamper

OT Student from Ohio State University

As a student, Taylor displayed leadership characteristics during her fieldwork experience at Summa Health. She demonstrated personalized care by creating and providing handouts to families as well as educating family members on how to help provide best care possible for their loved one. She worked collaboratively with multiple disciplines to facilitate patient care as well. Taylor also took ownership of her patients, going above and beyond daily to meet their needs. Summa Health is proud to have hosted such a star student like Taylor!

Matthew (Matt) Kelly

April’s Student of the Month winner is Matthew (Matt) Kelly. During his time on clinical at our Akron Campus location, Matt embraced many of Summa’s leadership competencies. 

Matt demonstrated a dedication for quality and safety while showing personalized compassionate care for a patient he felt should go to a SNF vs home. His extensive documentation supporting this decision to the patients insurance company resulted in a safer, optimal discharge disposition for that patient. 

Matt shows a commitment to self development, taking in every opportunity to learn and apply what he has learned. He shows self awareness, identifying his strengths and weaknesses, taking time to reflect on how he has grown during his clinical; for example, demonstrating confidence to perform heavy assist transfers. 

Matt also has genuine empathy for patients and has a gift for listening. There was a particular patient that needed to just vent. Matt sat there acknowledging the entire time (to be honest, I feel I would have cut the conversation short). However, Matt gained such rapport by that interaction, that the patient performed far more activity than he had for anyone else. 

Matt truly embodies the philosophy of "the patient is the most important person to me." Summa Health is proud to have hosted Matt for both an outpatient and inpatient clinical.