Kitimat,B.C.
City councillor Edwin Empinado receives Jago Award
Teodoro Alcuitas
Editor, Philippine Canadian news.com
Operating room nurse Edwin Empinado has been recognized as one this year’s Jago awardee from Northern Health.
The Dr. Charles Jago Awards, named after the former board chair, acknowledge and celebrate the NH staff, physicians, and teams who have made outstanding contributions to the organizational goals, reflecting our values in the process.
The winner under the “Collaboration” category for 2020 is the team of Northwest Operating Room managers:
- Shelley Bondy – Prince Rupert Regional Hospital
- Diane Hess – Mills Memorial Hospital
- Edwin Empinado – Kitimat General Hospital
- Kia Beertema – Wrinch Memorial Hospital
- Elena Raykov – Bulkley Valley District Hospital
Jeanette Foreman, the quality improvement lead for the Quality and Innovation department, nominated the team and says:
“The Northwest Operating Room Managers demonstrate open and trusting relationships and engage whole-heartedly in collaboration across their sites and with regional support teams to optimize care. They share their successes and challenges, as well as their ideas for improvement. They even share supplies across sites!
“They show exemplary willingness to solve challenges in service delivery, steward health care resources, and engage their team members in daily care and improvement work to achieve the best possible outcomes for patients. They work tirelessly, demonstrating the values of respect and innovation as well as collaboration.” – Northern Health Stories.
Empinado, a graduate of Cebu City’s University of San Carlos School of Nursing in 1991, came to Canada and first worked with Vancouver’s St. Paul’s Hospital in 2004.
He joined Kitimat General Hospital in 2005 as an operating room nurse together with his wife Doris, also an OR nurse.
Empinado successfully combines his nursing with politics and became an elected City Councillor for the District of Kitimat
in 2010.
He won his third term in 2018.
The 55-year old father of one daughter, Diana Mae is an avid outsdoor person and an active community advocate.
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