Griffin Health caregiver receives Spirit of Planetree Award honor

DERBY - Griffin Health caregiver Kimberly Kozlowski of North Haven was recently awarded the 2025 Spirit of Planetree Award at the organization’s 53^rd Annual Employee Service Awards.

The Griffin Health Spirit of Planetree Award honors caregivers whose attitudes and deeds inspire others to greater heights and have advanced Griffin’s person-centered care efforts. Kozlowski will also be recognized at Planetree’s annual conference to be held in Baltimore, Md, this fall.

A licensed clinical social worker at Griffin for more than seven years, Kozlowski serves as the lead crisis clinician and advocate for Griffin’s Population Health Department. 

Known for her exceptional compassion and dedication to her patients, she recently went above and beyond to care for a young patient with disabilities in the Griffin Hospital Emergency Department, ensuring the patient felt loved, protected, and comforted during a very challenging and prolonged stay.

“Kimberly’s leadership has transformed Griffin’s pediatric/adolescent ED protocols to better address patient’s social determinants of health, positively impacting Griffin and its community,” the nomination for Kozlowski stated. “She also founded a kindergarten Girl Scout troop and launched a project to create touching “get well” cards for our patients, helping to empower the next generation of leaders.”

About Planetree

Founded in 1978 by Angelica Thieriot, a San Francisco patient who endured a traumatic healthcare 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. 

For more information, visit www.planetree.org.

This is a press release from Griffin Health. 

Griffin Hospital in Derby wins Newsweek's recognition for 7th straight year

DERBY - Griffin Hospital has once again been recognized as one of the World’s Best Hospitals by Newsweek, marking the seventh straight year it has earned this prominent distinction.

The World’s Best Hospitals recognition is based a rigorous evaluation process, including input from more than 85,000 medical professionals across 30 countries, hospital performance metrics, and patient satisfaction scores. 

Ranked second in Connecticut and 242nd nationally, the award highlights Griffin’s commitment to providing standard-setting, high-quality care, and to improving the health and well-being of those it serves.

“Earning a place on this prestigious list for seven years in a row speaks to Griffin’s core philosophy of kindness, caring and respect as defined by the internationally recognized Planetree patient-centered model,” said Griffin Health President and CEO Patrick Charmel. “Our caregivers’ extraordinary skill and dedication to truly listening to our patients, forming meaningful human connections and establishing trusting relationships allows Griffin to respond to their medical, emotional, and social needs more effectively and empower them to live a happier, healthier, and more productive life which truly sets our organization apart.”

Griffin Hospital is recognized internationally for its Planetree patient-centered care approach, which prioritizes medical excellence along with emotional support, transparency, and meaningful engagement with patients and their loved ones. This philosophy has positioned Griffin as a leader in healthcare innovation, influencing hospitals worldwide.

As the flagship hospital of Planetree International, Griffin joins 41 Planetree hospitals across nine countries in being named to Newsweek’s 2025 World’s Best Hospitals list. Each of these hospitals embraces a care delivery model that fosters patient and family involvement, promotes compassionate care, and strengthens community partnerships.

About Griffin Health

Griffin Health is a not-for-profit health care system that includes the award-winning Griffin Hospital, a 160-bed independent, acute care community teaching hospital located in Derby, Connecticut and its integrated medical practice Griffin Faculty Physicians, serving more than 130,000 residents of Connecticut’s Lower Naugatuck Valley Region. Certified for Excellence in Person-Centered Care™ by Planetree International, a global consumer healthcare organization dedicated to promoting patient-centered care, Griffin Hospital has received national recognition for creating a healthcare facility and an approach to patient care that is responsive to the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of patients and their loved ones. Griffin’s commitment to the patient-centered care philosophy enhances its mission to improve the well-being of its communities by empowering individuals with health education, wellness programs and assistance with social determinants of health. 

Many healthcare organizations around the world send visitors to Griffin Hospital’s facilities and incorporate its Planetree concepts into their healthcare models. 

Griffin Hospital is recognized for having industry-leading patient satisfaction ratings and has received numerous quality and clinical excellence awards. Griffin Hospital was named one of “Becker’s 100 Great Community Hospitals” by the highly reputable healthcare specialty publication Becker’s Hospital Review for continued focus on equity, patient satisfaction, innovation, and improving the health needs of the surrounding community. 

For more information, visit www.griffinhealth.org.

This is a press release from Griffin Hospital. 

Griffin Hospital in Derby offers patients post-ICU digital journal

Caregivers in the Intensive Care Unit at Griffin Hospital mark the first-in-the-nation implementation of the award-winning Post-ICU journal program./ Contributed photo

 

 

DERBY - Griffin Hospital is the first in the nation to offer ICU patients a digital journal that provides unique, patient-centered care to support their ability to process and manage traumatic events.

This September, Griffin introduced the Post-ICU journal, a novel care program that won the National Healthcare Innovation Award in the Netherlands in 2021.

Developed by anesthesiologist-intensivist Dr. Marc Buise of the Dutch Eindhoven Catharina Hospital, and We All Journal, the Post ICU journal is an online diary that helps intensive care patients process the traumatic events that resulted in their ICU admission.

“An ICU care experience can be incredibly difficult and isolating for patients,” said Dr. K. Marya Chaisson, Griffin Hospital ICU Medical Director. “Their trauma can be made worse when they have no clear recollection of being admitted and their memories of the experience are vague and fragmented. As part of our commitment to empower patients, foster their independence, honor their humanity, and enhance the healing environment at Griffin, we are proud to be the first hospital in the country to implement this innovative, patient-centered program that provides compassionate care for the emotional well-being of patients and their loved ones.”

The Post ICU journal addresses a side effect of ICU admission known as Post Intensive Care Syndrome. 

The journal allows relatives and nurses to safely and securely document events that occurred during a patient’s admittance and stay in the ICU so that the patient can review the entries when they are well. 

Research has shown that being able to read an account of the events that occurred during a hospital stay enables patients and their loved ones to better process the ICU period upon returning home. 

This contributes to a better mental and physical recovery.

The implementation of the Post ICU journal is supervised by Planetree International, a not-for-profit organization that partners with care settings around the world to improve health care outcomes and experiences through person-centered care. Planetree International has also supported several hospitals in the Netherlands with the introduction and implementation of this service.

The Post-ICU journal epitomizes the Planetree vision of person-centered care, which emphasizes the quality of human interactions and caring communication, the importance of connecting personnel to the deeper purpose of their work, and practical strategies for engaging patients, families and communities as partners.

“Griffin adopted this innovative care tool as part of its longstanding commitment to delivering Planetree person-centered care, an approach to healthcare that produces superior patient care and a humanized health care experience that emphasizes compassion, equity, and the active participation of patients and their families,” said Griffin Health President and CEO Patrick Charmel. “We are grateful to Planetree International for their partnership in bringing this innovation to the U.S., and to Griffin’s ICU caregivers for implementing this novel solution that supports the mental and physical recovery of our patients and their loved ones.”

Griffin Hospital has earned a reputation as a leader in person-centered care. 

The hospital has earned Planetree International’s prestigious Gold Certification for Excellence in Person-Centered Care four times and was recently named as one of the World’s Best Hospitals by Newsweek magazine for the fourth consecutive year.

This is a press release from Griffin Hospital.