Community Medical Center is proud to announce that Employee Health Nurse, Jessie Martin, has been recognized as the facility’s 2022 Mercy Award winner.

The Mercy Award recognizes one employee from each of LifePoint Health’s facilities who profoundly touches the lives of others and best represents the spirit and values on which the company was founded. The Mercy Award is an annual recognition program established in 2002 to honor the life and contributions of Scott Mercy, LifePoint’s founding chairman and chief executive officer. The award is considered the highest honor a LifePoint employee can receive.

Jessie is one of the few genuinely inspirational people. Dr. Nicole Finke, laboratory director, sums it up nicely by saying that "Jessie is someone who, with every interaction, inspires you to do better, be better, and push on." Jessie began her nursing career in orthopedics before moving on to another group of patients - CMC caregivers.

She tirelessly devotes herself to ensuring that these caregivers work in an environment where minimal safety risks, personal protective equipment is readily available and in working order, and anyone has an ally to turn to in need. Her star shone brightly during the COVID pandemic. She served on our Incident Command Team and coordinated ways to screen caregivers to ensure that they were infection-free and able to deliver safe care. She supported our caregivers by taking many phone calls to answer questions about COVID and arrange for employee COVID screening and testing. She made sure that caregivers were paid appropriately if they had to be off because of exposure or illness.

Getting vaccines to communities was a challenge across the country, and Jessie helped set up a hospital-based vaccine clinic that administered over 13,000 vaccines to Missoula residents. We struggled to find enough staff to ensure that we could keep the clinic open, but Jessie just kept working. She rearranged her hours, stayed late, came in early, and did whatever it took to ensure that anyone who wanted a vaccine got one.

Jessie is a lover of children and animals. She is active in 4-H, where her volunteer work provides a landing spot for children who may not otherwise have a solid option for healthy development.

"Jessie is someone who, with every interaction, inspires you to do better, be better, and push on," said Nicole Finke, MD

Each facility winner, including Jessie, will be considered for LifePoint’s 2022 companywide Mercy Award. The companywide winner will be announced this summer and honored during a ceremony in Nashville, Tenn., in August, to which Jessie and all facility winners are invited to attend.