>April 2, 2021

Dietary director named as Wow Moment of the Month for March

Vanessa Hooper, director of dietary services, was the March recipient for WOW Moment of the Month, for her dedication in going above and beyond for her staff and the patients.

According to her nominating co-worker Tammy Laningham, Vanessa is best described as a hero, because she is kind, considerate, generous and dedicated.

“She is not just dedicated to her family and friends, but her staff, the staff of this hospital, and to the patients,” said Tammy. “She is dedicated to making sure the staff and patients of this hospital have hot and nutritious meals every day regardless of what situations might be happening.”

Tammy said that dedication was proven many times during the ice and snow storm that covered this city in February. “Vanessa drove to work on the ice-covered roads then left and picked up several of her staff so they wouldn’t have to drive on the dangerous roads themselves. She did this several days during the snowstorm so that she would be able to feed all of the staff and patients three meals a day. Vanessa worked 12-18 hours a day dealing with busted water pipes, food shortage, no water, and very few staff. She worked alongside her staff to make sure everyone was taken care of. Vanessa shows this dedication every day not just when disasters happen.”

Thank you, Vanessa, for always going the extra mile for not only the patients here at Nacogdoches Memorial Hospital, but for the staff as well! This is definitely WOW material!

See more Memorial Hospital news in the latest edition of New Direction (PDF) >