Michelle Charles, vice president, nursing informatics, Parkview Health, was awarded the Douglas J. Leonard Indiana Caregiver of the Year Award by the Indiana Hospital Association (IHA).
The Douglas J. Leonard Indiana Caregiver of the Year Award recognizes individuals in the healthcare industry whose performance in the delivery of care is considered exemplary by patients and peers.
Charles leads the COVID-19 Vaccine Project Team, an interdisciplinary team formed in November 2020 with members from more than 20 departments across Parkview. In less than one month, Charles and her team opened the COVID-19 vaccine clinic at the Parkview Mirro Center for Research and Innovation, the largest mass vaccination clinic in the region and third largest in the state.
Under Charles’ leadership, the team leveraged a combination of Lean methods, simulation and modeling to create a seamless vaccination process, with no lines or bottlenecks, to reach their goal of delivering more than 1,000 vaccinations per day. The standard work documents and digital simulation model that resulted from this project were shared broadly to facilitate the launch of vaccine clinics throughout Indiana, including the mass vaccination clinic hosted by the Allen County Department of Health. Because of this innovative work, Parkview’s vaccine clinic team was honored with a Business Weekly Innovation Award in June.
As a woman of color, Charles also demonstrated a vision for and commitment to making COVID-19 vaccines accessible to minority communities. She led the implementation of pop-up clinics throughout the area, bringing vaccines directly to underserved populations in multiple community centers and places of worship.
Congratulations, Michelle, on a job well done!
