Internal Medicine & Huntsman Cancer Institute Join Forces to Thank Advanced Practice Clinicians and Honor Them with Excellence Awards
Advanced Practice Clinicians (APCs) have long been an essential component of the Department of Internal 
Medicine, University of Utah Health, and Huntsman Cancer Institute. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they demonstrated just how critical their roles truly are. These nurse practitioners and physician assistants have provided the highest quality care to COVID patients this year, all while juggling their home lives with their many other duties as providers, researchers and educators.
“This year, more than ever, our APCs deserved to be recognized for their hard work, dedication, and compassion,” said Andrea Schindler, Outpatient APC Director for the Department of Internal Medicine. “Times are challenging; and we want to acknowledge the many sacrifices our APCS make to provide exceptional care to our patients which has become even more apparent over the past several months. David and I could not be more proud to serve and lead this group of providers. We look forward to this event every year as it offers us the opportunity to honor you, sing your praises, and showcase your accomplishments.”
The Department of Internal Medicine joined forces with APCs from Huntsman Cancer Institute on Thursday, November 19, 2020 to thank APCs for their incredible work on the COVID frontlines and to honor them with Clinical and Teaching Excellence Awards. The Department of Internal Medicine’s APC Appreciation Day and Excellence Awards ceremony is held annually, but this was the first year that the ceremony was held virtually. APCs from Huntsman were also in attendance at this year’s virtual event.
“We work and interface with our Huntsman employed APC colleagues on nearly a daily basis, and consider them a part of our Internal Medicine APC family,” remarked David Kendrick, Inpatient APC Director for the Department of Internal Medicine, “which is why we have included Huntsman APCs into our annual recognition event since last year. This is a tradition we will keep going forward.”
This virtual ceremony was broadcasted via livestream, and participants in the ceremony practiced healthy COVID-19 habits, including physical distancing and masking. In addition to the Department based event, Schindler and Kendrick were joined by their APC Leadership Council colleagues in honoring all 700+ members of the U Health APC community during the first-ever U of U Health system-wide APC Appreciation celebration which took place on November 12, 2020. This was also a virtual, live-streamed event. The intent was to honor all APCs within the organization and to provide an opportunity to unify and inspire all of our APC providers.
This year’s APC Awards process began in August, with a call for nominations sent to peers, physician colleagues and division leadership. A formal APC Awards Selection Committee was formed in October to discuss the final winners of the APC Clinical Excellence Awards and the APC Teaching Excellence Award. The Department recognizes and thanks the members of the Selection Committee for volunteering their time to serve on the committee: Drs. Nate Wanner and Michelle Litchman, Mary Steinbach, Julia Batten, Kristin Akers, Holli Martinez, Tiffany Fasano Hughes, Will Cho, Esther Kannapel, and Brighton Loveday, who also served as emcee on behalf of the Huntsman APC winner.
The APC Clinical Excellence Award was designed to recognize an APC who promotes teamwork, and demonstrates broad depth of clinical knowledge and mastery of application to patient care. The APC Teaching Excellence Award was designed to recognize APCs who dedicate themselves as mentor for their colleagues, and who strive to educate their patients as well. Five total awards would be granted to five APCs this year – four for Clinical Excellence and one for Teaching Excellence.
The winners of 2020’s APC Clinical Excellence Awards is as follows:
Steinia Lewis, PA-C 
Steinia is a Physician Assistant in the Division of General Internal Medicine, working as an inpatient hospitalist PA. She was nominated because of her clinical mastery that allows her to practice independently with very little oversight. Her physician colleagues note that they can “sleep easy” knowing that Steinia is caring for their patients overnight. The entire hospitalist group implicitly trusts her triage skills, diagnostic abilities, and clinical decision-making; she is an active and well-valued member of this team, providing a consistent voice in group discussions.
Steinia is also leading a penicillin allergy delabeling project involving members of the Hospitalists and Antimicrobial Stewardship groups. Their goal is to create a systematic method for improving penicillin allergy histories, testing penicillin allergies in low-risk patients, and removing inappropriate penicillin allergies listed in patient's charts when possible.
Jennalyn Mayeux, APRN
Jennalyn is a Nurse Practitioner in the Division of Respiratory, Critical Care and Occupational Pulmonary Medicine, 
and was nominated for her compassionate work in the Pulmonary Hypertension & Dyspnea Program. Since joining this program, Jennalyn has had a transformational effect on patients’ lives and also on the program itself, turning it into the premier Pulmonary Vascular Disease Program in the United States. With an increase of 10% more patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, Jennalyn has set herself and this program apart by reorganizing her life and her clinic workflow to implement a care process for her Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH) patients that became a national standard.
Jennalyn’s clinical knowledge is exceptional due in part to her focus on reviewing, and contributing to, medical literature. She is first author on a recently accepted publication entitled, “Management of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension” in Current Cardiovascular Risk Reports, and on numerous occasions has been invited to speak at regional, national and international meetings on pulmonary vascular disease and telehealth.
Rachel Montague, APRN, MSN, BSN
Rachel is a Nurse Practitioner in the Division of General Internal Medicine and the
Oncology & Survivorship Program at Huntsman Cancer Institute. With a deep interest in mental health, Rachel obtained a Post-Masters certificate as a psychiatric and mental health nurse practitioner through Johns Hopkins University, and now works with Dr. Paul Theilking to provide outpatient psychiatric evaluations, psychotropic medication management, and psychotherapy services to Huntsman patients in need of mental health care.
Her other major achievements include presenting at a poster presentation at the 2017 ASCO Palliative Oncology conference, earning the 2019 Hospice and Palliative Care Nurses Foundation scholarship, and most notably, her successful submission of a pilot project to the Supportive Oncology & Survivorship Disease Center. She is the only APC who serves as a Principal Investigator for a transdisciplinary project. She designed this project out of a sense of curiosity and a need to provide better, targeted care for her patients, and was awarded $11,000 for her efforts.
Kim Dumas, APRN
Kim is a Nurse Practitioner in the Huntsman at Home Program at Huntsman Cancer Institute, serving as clinical lead since March 2019. During the awards ceremony, Brighton Loveday, APC Director at Huntsman Cancer 
Institute, noted that Kim had gone beyond and above the call of her clinical duties in her leadership role.
“Under Kim’s mentorship and guidance, the Huntsman at Home Program has flourished, resulting in a 58% reduction in unplanned hospitalization and a 48% reduction in ED visits,” Loveday commented. “She is responsible for much of the success of this program – the “glue” which helps keep the team focused and goal-oriented.”
Kim is also an empathetic listener who provides a delicate touch when helping emotionally distraught caregivers or patients. Her sharp wit and intelligence are matched by her humility and generosity, and she treats everyone from team member to patient with the same sense of professionalism and respect. She has drawn on her broad depth of skills and experience in hospice, palliative care, and home health to lead a newly formed interdisciplinary team on a successful quest with a shared passion—caring for seriously ill cancer patients in their own homes.
The winner of 2020’s APC Teaching Excellence Award is as follows:
Alex Gouttsoul, PA-C
Alex is a Physician Assistant in the Division of General Internal Medicine and the Hospitalist APC Fellowship 
Program Director. Those who have had the pleasure to work and learn from him benefit not only from his excellent didactics and 1:1 mentorship, but from his example as a compassionate, humble, and extremely knowledgeable provider. At a larger level, he has taken the lead on several teaching endeavors delivering lectures for PA students and APC fellows on multiple topics that span from cardiology to general hospitalist medicine.
Alex was also instrumental in starting and running the Hospitalist APC fellowship program. In just a few years’ time, this fellowship program has blossomed into a competitive, highly respected, and nationally recognized program; Alex has been instrumental to its success, serving as a champion for this program since its inception. As a testament to his success, he has now been recruited to help develop a similar program for Huntsman Cancer Institute.
The awards presentation livestream has been recorded, and can be watched by clicking here.
*All photos of award winners were taken outside and from a safe, 6' distance.