WARNER ROBINS - One employee's idea for motivating workers at the Houston Healthcare Complex has caught the attention of a multinational corporation and may be used at hospitals around the country.
"Cokes for Caring," a program that rewards nurses for great work by giving them free soda refills, was the brainchild of Ginny Bartoldo, chief nurse executive for the complex, which includes the Houston Medical Center and Perry Hospital.
Bartoldo said she was just looking for a way to motivate the facilities' nurses. But when she called Atlanta-based Coca-Cola to buy cups, at least one person at the company was intrigued.
"There's nothing I'm aware of like this from an employee recognition perspective," said Michael Gilliam, a national account executive at Coca-Cola Enterprises.
Gilliam handles Coke's account with the Voluntary Hospitals of America, a nationwide network of more than 2,000 community-owned healthcare organizations that includes the Houston Healthcare Complex and The Medical Center of Central Georgia.
He said if the program is successful, Coca-Cola may help other VHA hospitals set up similar systems. Margaret Cousart, director of clinical improvement for VHA Georgia, also said many hospitals throughout the Southeast are interested in the program.
Here's how it works: If a nurse manager learns a nurse did a good deed, helped without being asked or otherwise went beyond the call of duty, that manager will give them a plastic cup and a card good for 50 free refills of soda.
"It seemed to me it was an opportunity to mesh two really good ideas so we could give (the nurses) a little boost," Bartoldo said. She said the program may later be expanded to include other complex employees.
Coca-Cola provides the cups, emblazoned with the words "Caring is thirsty work," and has designed promotional posters that will hang throughout the Houston complex. Cafeterias at the Houston Medical Center and Perry Hospital provide the beverages.
Bartoldo received one of the cups, intended as promotional material, at a May VHA meeting in Chicago. That cup was the inspiration for the program, she said.
"Ginny and her folks were kind of thinking out of the box and came up with a new use for (the cups)," Gilliam said.
