Patty Schulz is Eastern Plumas Health Care’s first ever Employee of the Month. EPHC has had an Employee of the Year for as long as anyone can recall. But Schulz’s award is part of a newly enhanced employee recognition and customer service program, helmed by the hospital’s Director of Human Resources, Cathy Conant, aimed at increasing satisfaction both internally and externally.

Schulz is ideal as the first recipient of this award, since she’s worked faithfully for EPHC since 1986. She was hired then as an EMT 1. She also worked for awhile as a Certified Nurse’s Assistant (CNA), and worked in the lab as a phlebotomist.

She returned to emergency services, gaining her EMT 2 and then her Paramedic certification. Schulz has worked as a Paramedic at the hospital for the past fifteen years.

“I love working here,” she said. “I enjoy all the people I work with, and I prefer not to work in an overly busy place—I like the pace here.”

Schulz also loves the outdoors and said she couldn’t work in an office because she “couldn’t sit still that long.” She is an avid outdoorswoman, listing hiking, camping, horseback riding, skiing, and running as her interests. “Seize the day,” is her favorite quote, and it describes her well.

Anyone who knows Schulz, also knows how committed she is to her animals. She counts horses and three dogs—a McNab/Border Collie, a Queensland, and recently a Shih Tzu—as part of her family.

Fellow employee, Marie Dooley, had this to say of Schulz on her nomination form: “Everyone loves Patty. She is able to gain the trust of all patients that she has contact with due to her honest and caring nature.”

Schulz said she was very pleased to be named Employee of the Month. EPHC’s new employee recognition program not only rewards good services, it emphasizes to staff the vital nature of what they do, and the importance of giving patients the quality and caring service they deserve.