Griffin Hospital honors Shelton man with Planetree Scholar Award

Griffin Health Certified Operating Room Technician Kojo Agyedu of Shelton, center, was recently awarded the Planetree Scholar Award. Celebrating with him are Griffin Health President and CEO Patrick Charmel, left, and Todd Liu, Vice President, Accountable Care, and General Counsel./ Contributed photo

DERBY - Griffin Health Certified Operating Room Technician Kojo Agyedu of Shelton was recently awarded the Planetree Scholar Award at the 2019 Planetree International Conference on Person-Centered Care held in Orlando.

The Planetree Scholar Award honors individuals whose attitudes and deeds inspire others to greater heights and have advanced an organization's person-centered care efforts. 

Agyedu has been with Griffin for more than seven years, building a reputation as a very special caregiver who takes exceptional care of his patients and has fantastic relationships with fellow caregivers, surgical sales representatives and students.

Agyedu’s coworkers nominated him for the award based on his ability to develop positive relationships with his patients and for his unwavering efforts to do everything he can to make patients feel comfortable and relaxed - from putting warm blankets on them, to welcoming children into the surgery process so they understand what’s going on, to consoling and calming anxious patients and their loved ones.

“Every decision he makes is guided by putting himself in the other person’s shoes,” the nomination form for Agyedu states. “He treats them as he would want to be treated.”

About Planetree

Founded in 1978 by Angelica Thieriot, a San Francisco patient who endured a traumatic health care experience, Planetree is an internationally-recognized not-for-profit organization that partners with health care providers around the globe to advance patient-/resident-centered approaches to care.

Planetree has been at the forefront of the effort to personalize, humanize, and demystify the health care system for more than 30 years. With its model of patient-/resident-centered care being implemented in a diverse range of hospitals, continuing care facilities, outpatient clinics, and consumer health libraries across North America, Canada, Brazil, The Netherlands and Japan, Planetree is demonstrating that patient-centered care is not only an empowering philosophy, but a viable, vital, and cost-effective model of care.

This is a press release from Griffin Hospital.