Our annual OR Excellence Awards issue is both a labor of love and an impossible assignment. On the one hand, we get to highlight the outstanding efforts of surgical facility leaders and their teams. Telling their lesson-filled stories drives home the point that there is no more talented or dedicated group of healthcare professionals than the readers that we are proud and honored to serve. As you’ll see in our ORX Awards package beginning on p. 26, this year’s winners offer up exceptional examples of how to run a surgical facility with smarts, savvy and compassion.

But on the other hand, we only have so much space to tell but a handful of stories. Inevitably, we fail to honor some very deserving surgical facilities and leaders. Perhaps we missed your story this time around. Don’t think we didn’t notice. Only 7 facilities get to take a bow this year, but the tireless work that you do for your staff, surgeons, stakeholders and patients is worthy of ovation and adoration.

The famous quote atop this page is from a talk that NFL coach Vince Lombardi gave to one of his Green Bay Packers teams. “We are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it, because nothing is perfect. But we are going to relentlessly chase it, because in the process we will catch excellence. I am not remotely interested in just being good.”

Or, if you prefer the words of Norman Vincent Peale, “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”

Surgery leaders aren’t wired to settle for so-so or for “just being good.” In your striving for perfection, you set a shining example.

• • •

A couple of staff announcements to share.

• Pamela Bevelhymer, RN, BSN, is an OR circulator at Northwest Michigan Ambulatory Surgery Center in Traverse City, Mich. She’s also a mighty fine photographer who shoots weddings, portraits and all things surgical. We are thrilled to have Ms. Bevelhymer as our staff photographer. You’ll see her name in many of the photo credits in this issue.
• Kendal Gapinski. We’ve added a talented reporter to our editorial staff. Ms. Gapinski, who majored in journalism at the American University in Washington D.C., joined the magazine last month after a stint at a daily newspaper.

There’s still time to register for OR Excellence next month in New Orleans. As always, we hope you enjoy this issue.