Milam named OMC’s August Employee of the Month

Oconee Medical Center named Chesley Milam as its Employee of the Month for August 2013. Milam is a security officer and has been with Oconee Medical Center for just over a year. Milam was nominated by his Supervisor based upon an email he received from an emergency department nurse recounting Milam’s kindness toward a grieving visitor. A gentleman was brought to the emergency department and subsequently died. In her grief, his wife couldn’t remember her daughter’s telephone number, and to complicate matters, she couldn’t retrieve it from her cell phone because the battery lost its charge while she had been on the phone with the 911 dispatcher. A nurse called the security office knowing they had access to several cell phone chargers, and Milam showed up to help. He took her phone and tried to charge it, but none of the chargers he found would fit her phone. Milam took his own personal cell phone battery, which was too big for the visitor’s phone, and used rubber bands to rig it up to it giving her phone enough charge for staff to retrieve the telephone numbers from it. Milam then took the visitor’s phone battery and put it on a charger in the security office where he let it charge until it was full. In the hustle and bustle of a busy emergency department, charging a cell phone battery may not seem like a big deal. But, in this instance, Milam exhibited compassion above and beyond the call of duty. “Teamwork is important in the emergency department setting,” said Vice President of Nursing Pat Smith. “But when a team member responds in such a way that not only helps another team member but also leaves such a remarkable impression upon the patients and visitors, the entire team is built up and encouraged. The impact is a contagious spirit of camaraderie and pride.” When presented with the award, Milam simply responded to his award by humbly saying, “I was just doing my job.”