Ohio’s Hospice staff members are dedicated to providing superior care and superior service to each patient and family. 

Many times they go above and beyond, and those staff members are recognized with the Bouquet of Recognition Awards for Excellence.  Honorees personify the qualities found in the mission and values of Ohio’s Hospice and are the foundation upon which remarkable patient experiences are built.   

These honorees consistently demonstrate excellence through their expertise and extraordinary care of patients and families. They are recognized as outstanding role models in the Ohio’s Hospice community. These are the recipients for the second quarter of 2026.

Carnation Award – Karen Murray

Karen, who works in the Clinical Administration Department in Wooster, was recognized with the Carnation Award for how she handles many different aspects of her position. According to staff member Paula Barnes, Karen is a pivotal piece of our hospice clinical support team. 

“Karen has taken on requests from her peers in-house and in the field such as making copies, sending faxes, getting signatures or reaching out to hospitals for information needed,” Paula said. “These tasks are all urgent by the requestor and Karen makes sure she is timely and efficient with each one of us.” 

Karen was also seen as the go-to person for information from many different individuals when the State of Ohio visited the building. 

“With each task, Karen was seen as a confident team player and always willing to go that extra mile to make sure things ran smoothly,” Paula said. 

Paula added that she recently had to come into the office instead of working in the field and Karen has been “more than helpful” in guiding her through some IT issues and assisting with basic office machinery. 

Congratulations to Karen on being recognized with the Carnation Award and thanks to her for her support of the Ohio’s Hospice mission.

DAISY Award® – Heather Taylor 

Ohio’s Hospice is proud to be a DAISY Award^® partner, recognizing nurses with this special honor quarterly. The international program rewards and celebrates the extraordinary, compassionate and skillful care given by nurses every day. 

Heather, a registered nurse, was recognized with the DAISY Award for her unwavering dedication to patient care and professionalism, consistently demonstrating genuine compassion and empathy while putting the needs of her patients and families first. 

According to her anonymous nominator, Heather routinely goes above and beyond to ensure patients receive exceptional care and support. Citing one particular action, her team was short one Saturday and although she had prior commitments, she volunteered to pick up the latter half of a shift. 

Near the end of that shift, Heather was assigned a patient who was aggressively vomiting blood. When she arrived at the home, she could see the fear in the eyes of the patient and family. Heather immediately began working on getting the patient comfortable, multi-tasking between giving medications, collaborating with the nurse practitioner and the medical doctor, obtaining equipment and supplies and providing emotional support to the patient and family. 

The spouse and family were not expecting their loved one to die, but the patient looked at Heather and said “I’m ready to go.” As Heather continued working on patient comfort, the family began singing hymns. The patient became calm and rested with his eyes closed. Heather told the family to gather around as the patient was close to passing. Surrounded by family and his spouse, the patient peacefully died during this visit.  

Heather stayed at the home hours past the end of her shift to help provide emotional support and support the crisis care nurse, who arrived 15 minutes prior to the patient passing.  

“Although I am only describing this one situation, this is how Heather operates every day with every single patient,” the nominator wrote. “We are blessed to have her on our team, and she plays a vital role in supporting the mission at Ohio’s Hospice.” 

Congratulations to Heather on being recognized with the DAISY Award and thanks to her for her support of the Ohio’s Hospice mission.

Sunflower Award – Tracie Johnson 

Tracie Johnson, who is a social worker in our South Care Region, received the Tulip Award for her compassion, caring and patience as she introduced a family to options with hospice. 

“It was clear to us that her work with hospice was both a calling and a deliberate choice in how she empathized with what we were facing,” nominator Libby Anderl wrote. “I work with social workers every day in a hospital setting in my career and I have never witnessed this level of compassionate communication before. How lucky am I that it was for my family and my father.” 

According to Libby, Traci communicated with the doctors and nurses in “real time” to help her and her family make more-informed decisions and did it all in a way that was easy to understand. Tracie made sure Libby’s father understood the questions and empowered him to have a voice, while also helping identify resources that the family was unaware of, such as scheduling a Veteran pinning he could share with his brother, who also served. 

“My family often said that cancer got zero stars, but Tracie gets five stars,” Libby said. “I will never forget Traci and I will be forever grateful to her for the compassion she offered to my father and family.” 

Congratulations to Tracie on being recognized with the Tulip Award and thanks to her for her support of the Ohio’s Hospice mission.