News Release

Norton County Hospital receives Emerald Awards

The awards recognize excellence in communication.

May 1, 2018

NORTON, Kan. – The Kansas Association of Health Care Communicators (KAHCC), an allied organization of the Kansas Hospital Association, annually invites Kansas hospital and health care providers to enter their communication projects for a chance to win Emerald Awards. Award categories include: Internal and External Communications, Special Events, Digital Media Projects, Videos, Websites, Advertising, Writing, Media Relations/Crisis Communication, Small Budget-Big Results and Wildcard.

This was the first time Norton County Hospital participated, and it won Emerald Awards in both categories entered: Internal Communications and Websites. The Internal Communications Emerald Award was given for the hospital’s employee quarterly newsletter by Katie Allen, NCH’s communications director and the Norton Regional Health Foundation executive director; Jamey Keen, RN, who oversees NCH’s infection prevention, employee health and quality improvement; and Shannan Hempler, NCH’s human resources director. The Website Emerald Award was given for the hospital’s website redesign by Katie Allen.

Out-of-state judges scored the entries. Awards were given on a tiered scoring system. Entries that scored within the top tier received Emerald Awards, and those that still scored well but didn’t quite make the top tier received Certificates of Merit. The awards were presented during the KAHCC Spring Conference in Emporia on April 20th. Awardees were given an opportunity to present about their projects so health care communication professionals statewide had a chance to ask questions and get ideas to take back to their facilities.

The KAHCC is a group of health care communications professionals dedicated to improving communication with our communities, health care employees, physicians, media and more. Information about Norton County Hospital, including its newsletter, can be found online.

###