{"id":87034,"date":"2013-12-10T11:28:13","date_gmt":"2013-12-10T16:28:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=87034"},"modified":"2013-12-10T16:26:13","modified_gmt":"2013-12-10T21:26:13","slug":"correctional-managed-health-care-administrator-honored","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2013\/12\/correctional-managed-health-care-administrator-honored\/","title":{"rendered":"Correctional Managed Health Care Administrator Honored"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"2013_deckers_award_2\"<\/a>
Dr. Frank Torti, executive vice president for health affairs and medical school dean, with the 2013 Dr. Peter J. Deckers Employee Appreciation Award nominees (from left): Quratulain \u201cAnnie\u201d Ali, Gail Sheehan, Sandra Krawczynski, Gail Johnson, and LuAnn Satherlie. (Jason Wright\/UConn Health Center Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the UConn Health Center\u2019s less-talked-about missions is the care and treatment of the state\u2019s inmate population.<\/p>\n

Overseeing the division known as Correctional Managed Health Care<\/a> and its $85 million budget is no small task, but it\u2019s been Gail Johnson\u2019s job for the last six years.<\/p>\n

Monday Johnson, CMHC\u2019s director of administrative services, was recognized for excelling in this role. She was named winner of the UConn Health Center\u2019s fifth Dr. Peter J. Deckers Employee Appreciation Award<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Johnson was nominated by Dr. Robert Trestman, CMHC\u2019s executive director, who credits her with promoting improved efficiencies and outcomes, in part by streamlining the division\u2019s clinical, pharmacy and information technology operations, in the process saving the state more than $30 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cGail has been phenomenal in her consistency, her persistence, and her vision in bringing together all the different aspects of what she does,\u201d Trestman says. \u201cFrom managing, from a human resources perspective, to labor relations, to giving guidance to I.T., to finance, to helping to support pharmacy, and bringing all of those domains together under her umbrella effectively and efficiently, while really helping to grow the people who report to her, she has just been phenomenal. It was such an easy choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

In presenting Johnson with the award, Dr. Frank Torti<\/a>, executive vice president for health affairs and medical school dean, said, \u201cIt\u2019s just wonderful to know that the idea of caring, and of care\u2014regardless of the state of the patient\u2014is something that drives Gail\u2019s motivation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"2013_deckers_award_3\"<\/a>
Gail Johnson, winner of the 2013 Dr. Peter J. Deckers Employee Appreciation Award, with the man for whom the award is named. (Jason Wright\/UConn Health Center Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\nJohnson says while she knew she was nominated, it was a shock when Torti announced her as the winner.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was very surprised and honored,\u201d Johnson says. \u201cI think the fact that my team, the great group of colleagues that I work with, felt it worthwhile and important to recognize my contributions is the real honor and reward.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the ceremony to present the award in his name, Dr. Peter Deckers, retired executive vice president for health affairs and Dean Emeritus of the UConn School of Medicine, said the recipient not only must possess knowledge and skill, but the courage to counsel others and the ability to develop strong working relationships.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe person needs to be someone who looks upon the people he or she works with as people that he or she genuinely loves and cares about, both personally and professionally, and would do anything to make their life personally and professionally better,\u201d Deckers told the standing-room-only crowd in the Onyiuke Dining Room. \u201cAnd as that develops, I think the person involved also begins to feel the same thing reciprocated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Employees were nominated by senior leaders based on three primary criteria:<\/p>\n