Columbus CEO - OhioHealth Associate Honored with Lifetime Achievement Award

Columbus CEO magazine recently announced the winners of its 2019 Healthcare Achievement Awards and OhioHealth is proud to share that associate Holly Herron has been honored with the Lifetime Achievement award.

Holly began her career as a nurse in the ICU at OhioHealth Grant Medical Center. During that time, Grant started its trauma program and the use of a Life Flight helicopter. Holly was encouraged to apply for a position as a flight nurse, caring for patients en route to the hospital from 2,000 feet in the air.

“What I could do to impact that first link in the chain of survival was mesmerizing to me,” Holly told Columbus CEO reporter Chloe Teasley.

She started working as a flight nurse in 1984 and two years later, went on to help create remote helicopter bases that helped get patients care in a faster amount of time. She tells Columbus CEO the model of remote helicopter bases has now been replicated 400 times nationwide.

After 30 years and more than 5,000 flights, Holly is now retired from flying, but still works at Grant. She currently serves as OhioHealth’s EMS director and as the undergraduate clinical coordinator at Otterbein University. During her career, she has taught over 100 different paramedic classes.

Former student and current colleague, Barbara Dean told Columbus CEO that Holly has had a big impact on her own career.

“She has raised my standards,” Dean told Teasley. “Holly has very high expectations of everybody that she works with. She, in turn, has made me have those high expectations of myself.”

Congratulations to Holly on this well-deserved honor! To read more of her story, including some of her experiences with patients, click on the Columbus CEO icon.