Hospital Heroes

For his work as administrator of Operation Mend, J. Shannon O'Kelley, associate director of operations-clinical services for UCLA Hospital System, has been nominated to receive a 2008 Hospital Hero Award from the National Health Foundation. The awards, which recognize exceptional direct patient care and service to patients and their families, will be presented at the Third Annual Award Luncheon on November 7.

Operation Mend is a partnership between UCLA and Brooke Army Medical Center to provide reconstructive plastic surgery to soldiers who have been disfigured in combat. Thus far, seven combat veterans have received care at UCLA, with more on the way. As the program's administrator, Shannon works to cut through bureaucracy to bring soldiers to UCLA, arranges for their travel and lodging, and sees to the needs of the soldiers, and their families, while they are here.

He personally meets soldiers at the airport arrival gate, and he makes himself available around-the-clock to answer any of their questions or allay concerns. He escorts them to appointments, and he has dug into his own pocket to pay expenses. He forms a personal relationship with each soldier that continues after the solider leaves UCLA.

"He has been unbelievable," says Amir Dan Rubin, COO of UCLA Hospital System. "His commitment and sense of caring and wanting to do what's best for these patients is what has been so unique."