An international association dedicated to infection prevention will present one of its highest honors to Caryl Ryan, UConn John Dempsey Hospital chief operating officer.

The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, or APIC, has named Ryan winner of its 2023 Healthcare Administrator Award in recognition of her role in establishing a culture that enables and supports infection prevention efforts.

Caryl Ryan consistently and firmly requires infection prevention to be seated at decision-making tables and always demonstrates commitment to infection prevention and control in all aspects. — Nancy Dupont

“This is a really big award in the infection control world, and no one deserves it more than Caryl,” says Nancy Dupont, one of three colleagues who nominated Ryan.

Dupont is UConn Health’s director of epidemiology, infection prevention and control, one of the leadership positions Ryan previously held.

The distinguished honor “recognizes and celebrates the efforts of administrators who champion infection prevention efforts within their organizations,” according to the APIC, which reports a membership exceeding 15,000 in 48 countries.

“Caryl Ryan consistently and firmly requires infection prevention to be seated at decision-making tables and always demonstrates commitment to infection prevention and control in all aspects, especially by having our team as a valuable component of the discussions,” Dupont wrote in her nomination. “Ms. Ryan is passionately dedicated to infection prevention and all the components of the program.”

Ryan, who holds the additional titles of UConn Health’s chief nursing officer and the hospital’s vice president for quality and patient care services, has climbed the ranks over her nearly four decades, going back to her hire as a staff nurse in the intensive care unit in 1985.

“Caryl works diligently with the nursing management team to ensure that leaders at every level have a fundamental understanding of the importance of infection prevention strategies such as hand hygiene compliance and daily device awareness and evaluation of need. It is an expectation that the nurse managers report on their hand hygiene compliance monthly and speak to corrective actions when compliance is not at an appropriate level,” wrote Michelle DeLayo, director of quality and patient safety, critical care, and advanced practice staff, in her nomination letter. “Caryl has provided substantial support, both financially and through proactive efforts culminating in the expansion of the infection prevention department, with the hiring of additional infection prevention staff, fit testing staff, and increased hours for our epidemiology nurses.”

Ryan also was nominated by Dr. David Banach, UConn Health’s hospital epidemiologist.

“Even during the most stressful periods of the pandemic, her hands-on approach to leadership brought her directly to the nursing units throughout our hospital, speaking directly to our bedside nurses understanding and addressing the challenges and fears and how to ensure that they provided safe and effective care to our patients during this very vulnerable time,” Banach wrote. “During the pandemic surge of 2020, while some health care leaders were leading organizations over Zoom from their office or homes, she could be found walking the halls of the hospital, stopping at all of our nursing stations to ensure that our organization was addressing the key concerns of the staff and meeting the needs of our patients.”

Ryan will accept the award at the APIC’s annual conference in Orlando in June.

“It is an incredible honor to receive the APIC Healthcare Administrator Award,” Ryan says. “This recognition reflects the high-quality infection control practices we have in place within our institution to prevent harm to our patients. We have been very successful in this effort due to the hard work of our faculty and staff, in particular, driven by our infection prevention team led by Nancy DuPont. Drs. David Banach and Scott Allen have also been instrumental in their leadership related to our infection control policies and practices as we navigate our continued success and sustainability within the quest to eliminate health care-associated infections.”