ElderWood Senior Care presents Service Excellence Award

ElderWood Senior Care President Robert M. Chur, center, congratulates Service Excellence Award winners Barbara Wurzler, left, and Nancy Mildenberger.

Barbara Wurzler, Nancy Mildenberger and Mary Holden are the 2006 recipients of Elder- Wood Senior Care’s Service Excellence Award.

The award is presented annually to a staff member who promotes ElderWood’s mission to provide quality care while exemplifying the organization’s core values: a passion for excellence, integrity, teamwork and reverence for the individual. This is the 19th year ElderWood has presented the staff award and the first year that more than one staff member was honored.

“I think the fact that we decided to present this award to three individuals this year is indicative of the quality staff we have been fortunate to cultivate over the years,” said President and CEO Robert M. Chur. “These three women have shown their dedication to resident care in countless ways and it gives me great pleasure to present them with Elder- Wood’s highest staff honor.”

Wurzler, RN, of Amherst began her career at ElderWood as a part-time team leader at Elder- Wood Health Care at Heathwood in 1995, working her way up to

assistant unit manager. She has been resident care manager at ElderWood Village at Glenwood, Williamsville, since the facility opened in 1999.

“Residents trust and confide in Barbara daily; she leads her staff professionally and with caring instruction and guidance,” Elder- Wood Village at Glenwood Administrator Robin Secord said.

Mildenberger is a certified occupational therapy assistant at ElderWood Health Care at Wedgewood, Eggertsville and began her career in 1995 at Elder- Wood Health Care at Riverwood, and worked at two additional ElderWood facilities before becoming a permanent staff member at ElderWood Health Care at Wedgewood in 2003.

She also organizes the facility’s Safety Supporters safety focus group, coordinates the annual range of motion training for the facility’s certified nursing assistants and is active in the facility’s health and wellness program.

Unit clerk on the Ventilator Care and Transitional Cardiac Care Unit at ElderWood Health Care at Heathwood, Williamsville, Holden has been with the organization for nearly 20 years.

The awards were presented at ElderWood Senior Care’s Gold Club Dinner, an annual event honoring

staff members who have served the company for 10 or more years. Of ElderWood’s 2,632 full- and part-time staff, 454 are Gold Club members.