Our May 2020 Employee of the Month
Leighton Shoop
"Doing this job, you never know the type of situation you're about to get into, you just know that you need to be prepared for anything," says Leighton Shoop, Biomed Technician and Boone Hospital Center's May Employee of the Month. "Some people don't care for that type of environment, some thrive in it."
Leighton services, troubleshoots and repairs equipment for the hospital's Surgery department and OR. He says the department is a "true world of its own" and feels privileged to work with the team on a daily basis.
"It reminds me of an aircraft carrier flight deck, orchestrated and always moving in a deliberate fashion to get their goals accomplished. It, too, has some real characters. These doctors, nurses, CRNAs, scrub technicians and orderlies are some of the smartest and most dedicated people I've had the opportunity to work among," he says.
Leighton's comparison comes from his service in the Navy, which he joined after graduating from high school. While home on leave from New Orleans, he met his future wife Kim. The two were married in Algiers, Louisiana in April 1990. A year later, the newlyweds moved to Columbia, Kim took a job with Boone Hospital Center's surgery scheduling and billing office. Leighton would frequently come to Boone to join his wife for lunch and was immediately impressed by the people he met.
"I couldn't believe the environment and mood of the people working here," he says. "I was always enticed and truthfully a little jealous of the unique Boone environment. Why couldn't my employer have this kind of work climate?"
He also made friends with Kim's Boone teammates, including Sue Collins, whose office was around the corner from his wife's. "We were both in a similar line of work. On occasion, I would stop in and we would talk shop. Sue is a wealth of institutional knowledge, rock solid under pressure and a master at her craft."
After years of lunch dates, a position opened in the Clinical Engineering department.
"This wasn't just any position," Leighton says. "This was a position located in the OR Clinical Engineering division, working alongside Sue and a lot of the folks I'd come to know over the years. I jumped at the opportunity to apply."
It's a decision he has not regretted. Leighton takes pride in being a "Boonie" and has abundant respect for Sue and others in the Clinical Engineering team, calling them "top shelf people, from the manager to the last person hired."
"If you have equipment questions or issues, these folks are the go-to crew," he says. He enjoys the opportunities he's had over the last 16 years to work with so many talented people across the organization.
Leighton says, "Boone Hospital is an awesome place full of extremely talented and immensely dedicated people. To be in recognized in a workplace with this caliber of people is very humbling."
Congratulations, Leighton!