Amy Herrington was recently awarded Andalusia Regional Hospital’s 2013 Mercy Award.

Herrington has worked at ARH for the past 15 years and currently serves as the director of emergency services. ARH accounting director Lynn Shiver nominated her for the award. Her selection puts her in the running LifePoint’s 2013 companywide Mercy Award.

Shiver wrote, “Amy works with all departments of the hospital to ensure the continuum of care for our patients that present in the emergency room.”

“Amy’s desire to help others is evident in all she does within the hospital and community,” Shiver wrote. “She is always willing to l3end a hand to those in need and is continually thinking of ways to improve our patients’ experience.”

Dr. Mark Griffin, who works in the ARH ER, wrote in a letter of support, “Amy is one of those rare and unique individuals that I have had the pleasure to know only a very few times in my life. These are people with enormous capacities for work whose ethics and personal demeanor stand out in a world otherwise peopled with the mundane. She has a passion for her job, her family and her community that drives her to achieve excellence in every area of her life.”

Andalusia Regional CEO Rebecca Brewer wrote that Herrington’s life experiences made her a strong candidate for the award.

“Over then past 10 years, she has grown into a totally different individual whose compassion for patients and willingness to be a team player is easily recognized and appreciated,” Brewer wrote. “Her dramatic change is the result of a difficult life lesson.

“Her father was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and Amy quit her job to be her father’s primary caregiver. By working beside wonderful doctors and nurses who helped her with her father’s care, she realized how much their compassionate approach impacted her and her father’s lives.

“After her father’s death, she did a lot of self-reflection and came back to work a changed person,” Brewer wrote. “And as you would expect, the American Cancer Association has become her favorite charity. She is ARH’s champion for putting its Relay for Life team together. This year she planned a masquerade ball to raise money for Relay for Life.”

Melanie Rightmyer, program manager of the Alabama Department of Public Health’s cardiovascular unit, said it was Herrington’s enthusiasm and passion for her work are the reasons ARH is a part of the state’s stroke system of care.

“Although Andalusia Regional Hospital did not match the requirements outlined in the request for proposals, a genuine response was received from Ms. Herrington. Her passion to help the Andalusia community in regards to introducing telemedicine for stroke care was so impressive that I called (her) to listn to her unusual request for this rural community hospital. Based on the plan of action described by Ms. Herrington and with the support of the hospital’s upper management, a small amount of grant money was awarded to Andalusia Regional Hospital for their stroke program.”

“Andalusia Regional Hospital was recently certified as a Level III Stroke Center in our pilot system stroke project, thanks, in large part, to the teleneurology program and Amy’s dedication and persistence,” wrote Stephen P. Suggs, MD FAHA, Medical Director of the Neuro Hospitalist Services, Baptist Health, Montgomery, Alabama. “She is always positive and tenacious in achieving goals of improvement for patient care for her facility.”

Herrington will now be considered for a companywide Mercy award presented by LIfePoint Hospitals, Inc., Andalusia Regional Hospital’s parent company.

The award recognizes one employee who best represents the humanitarian spirit of Scott Mercy, LifePoint’s founding chairman and CEO, who died in 2000, and recognizes employees who inspire others with their compassion and merciful spirit.

Ms. Herrington, the mother of four, will be honored at a ceremony in Nashville, Tenn., later this year.