River Parishes Hospital’s 29th annual Service Awards Banquet was held last month at Frenier Landing in LaPlace. Each year, River Parishes Hospital recognizes employees by their length of service to the facility. Awards are given to employees who have completed their five, 10, 15, 20 and 25 years of consecutive employment at RPH. In addition, the 2011 Manager of the Year and Employees of the Year are announced.

River Parishes Hospital’s Chief Executive Officer Gerald Fornoff welcomed everyone to the banquet and opened the ceremony with a few hospital trivia questions. He then called on Dr. Andrew St. Martin, chief of staff, who thanked employees for their service and stressed the importance of having a community hospital in this area.

A total of 31 employees were recognized for their years of service. Each department manager was called on to recognized his/her employees and hand out their respective awards, which made the presentation very special and personal.

After the awards presentation, the nominees for Employees of the Year were introduced. An Employee of Year is selected in three different categories – professional, technical and support. The Professional Employee of the Year nominees were Tala Johnson-Burl – Pharmacy, Josh Lam – Emergency Services and Judy Naquin – Nursing Administration. The Technical Employee of the Year nominees were Heather Faulkner – Medical/Surgical Unit, Sandra Lasseigne – Information Services and Ashley Louque-Richard – Medical/Surgical Unit. The nominees for Support Services Employee of the Year were Kelly Hymel – Business Office, Melissa Jackson – Lab and Charlene Parker – Food and Nutrition Services.

Josh Lam was selected as the 2011 Professional Employee of the Year. Lam has been employed at River Parishes Hospital since October of 2008. Sandra Lasseigne was selected as the 2011 Technical Employee of the Year. She has been employed at the hospital since February of 2011 and Melissa Jackson was selected as the 2011 Support Services Employee of the Year. Jackson has been employed at RPH since July of 2001. Each Employee of the Year was presented with a $500 cash gift and had a star in the heavens named in his/her honor by the “Name A Star Foundation.”

Then the hospital’s 2011 Manager of the Year, Kat Trepagnier, Human Resources director, was announced. Trepagnier has been employed at River Parishes Hospital for nearly 16 years. She most recently served as the service excellence coordinator and the regional nurse r0ecruiter.