Ceca News: President's Message, News Articles & Program Updates

December 2021

Ceca Foundation was founded by the Matthew and Rosemary Lawlor family in honor of Mary Lawlor to recognize caregivers and celebrate their exceptional acts of care.

A Message from the President

It’s important during the holiday season to take time to reflect on the past year. There have been challenges, to be sure. But most importantly, we should all take the opportunity to celebrate our achievements. For starters: healthcare workers have administered 451 million vaccine doses to Americans, helping stem the tide of a devastating pandemic that particularly impacts our most vulnerable populations.

Moreover, they have shown grace and kindness while making incredible sacrifices. We have asked more of them, and they have delivered.

You may have your own stories of exceptional caregiving during the pandemic. If so, we encourage you to share them with us.

Over the last year, Ceca has been honored to:

Celebrate over 5,000 acts of teamwork, kindness and compassion
Recognize hundreds of caregivers with the Ceca Award
Collaborate with like-minded organizations, including AHCA and LeadingAge affiliates, to do more recognition for members and in their communities.
Show that the best response to staffing shortages is investing in retention-through-recognition efforts that reward and engage our healthcare heroes.

The pandemic has reminded us that life is a gift and that it should be lived fully. Healthcare workers help those they serve live more fully every day. So I encourage us all to find ways to give thanks this holiday season—whether to a family member, friend, or someone who impacted your life in a positive way this year. Giving thanks improves human connection and keeps us all motivated to be the best we can be.

With thanks,

Nate Hamme

President

Ceca Foundation

Ceca in the News

Ceca Foundation has recently appeared in print and digital publications on a variety of topics near and dear to our mission.

Co-Founder Matthew Lawlor had a thought leadership piece published in Modern Healthcare titled “Healthcare Employees Could Hold the Key to a Revealing New Data Set.” The piece focuses on the new metric for “caregiver Net Promoter Score (cNPS)” created by Ceca, which uses healthcare workers as a proxy for determining patient experience ratings.

President Nate Hamme most recently appeared in HomeCare Magazine with the article “Employee Appreciation is a Game-Changer in Health Care Staffing” to talk about the potential for employee retention through recognition programs like the Ceca Award. The article also quoted Ari Medoff, CEO of Arosa, which is one of Ceca’s in-home care partners.

Additionally, in the op-ed “Immigrants and America’s Healthcare Labor Shortage” appearing in McKnight’s Senior Living News, President Nate Hamme advocates for revisions to legislation that would bring skilled workers from other countries to enter the U.S. healthcare workforce to help with staffing issues. Data has long shown that our healthcare communities in America rely heavily on first and second-gen immigrants to begin with, and our experience with Ceca Award Honorees has affirmed that even more.

Program Updates and Other News

Achieving Ceca's Mission

Here at Ceca Foundation, we continually find ourselves humbled and honored to be able to recognize the amazing work of caregivers in our healthcare communities. But most importantly, we are moved by the emotions when a caregiver is recognized—whether it’s tears, cheers, or sheer surprise, we can visibly see the impact that recognition has. That’s why we are delighted to say that since Ceca’s inception in 2013 we have: recognized over 32,000 exceptional acts of care, honored over 9,000 caregivers, and presented the Ceca Award to nearly 1,000 deserving recipients. See our full infographic.

On the Road

Ceca is excited to partner with numerous healthcare-focused associations to recognize more of their members—during annual conferences, conventions, and beyond. Recent Ceca efforts include:

Presenting awards during the Ohio and Missouri Health Care Association events in August
Speaking during LifeSpan Maryland’s Annual Convention in Ocean City and honoring their Hero Award recipients
Participating in LeadingAge Maryland and DC’s annual call for nominations for awards during their virtual conference
Attending the California Association of Health Facilities November 2021 Annual Convention in Palm Spring
Assisting the Georgia Health Care Association collect nominations for their awards and recognition event in February 2022

With workforce initiatives top-of mind for providers in all care settings, Ceca looks forward to helping organizations retain and engage their caregivers through the power of recognition.

Partner Highlight

The Washington Post published a story about Ceca Healthcare Partner Goodwin House, a senior Life Plan community, titled “Immigrants are there for these retirees. So the retirees decided to be there for them.” It focused on the heartwarming story of a group of residents at Goodwin House and what they did for several of the caregivers at the community that were on a path to becoming American citizens.

New Program Addition

In August, we launched the monthly Program Manager Newsletter for the staff members responsible for running the Ceca Award at their respective facilities. The newsletter contains tips, best practices, announcements, and other news from Ceca. Since going largely virtual over a year and a half ago due to COVID restrictions, we have continually sought ways to be in touch with our healthcare partners and to enhance our offerings. The newsletter compliments the quarterly trainings we’ve been doing since 2020, our award celebrations, and our ongoing program operations and marketing support activities. If you are a Ceca Award Program Manager and are NOT receiving the newsletter, please let us know at accounts@cecafoundation.org.