BCN winners include: 

Monica Couch, Vice President and Chief Hospice Officer—Pioneer Category 

With more than 25 years of experience in the hospice industry, Couch has dedicated her life to ensuring that the most vulnerable individuals are provided with the best possible end-of-life care. Her career has spanned on-call nurse, case manager, nursing supervisor, executive director and now vice president and chief hospice officer. Couch is a staunch advocate for Eastern Kentucky and works tirelessly to ensure that this underserved population receives standardized, excellent care. Her efforts were instrumental in the design and opening of a state-of-the-art, free-standing, in-patient hospice care center in Eastern Kentucky. Although personally affected by the flooding in Eastern Kentucky in 2022, she collaborated with a community group to distribute food door-to-door and worked with BCN to provide financial assistance, drinking water, cleaning supplies, clothing and other necessities to employees affected by the flooding. 

Dave Carper, Counseling Resource Officer—Innovator Category 

Carper not only supports the clinical team to maintain high-quality patient care, but he is also committed to the communities BCN serves. In the aftermath of the Eastern Kentucky flood, Carper set up a Hope Table at recovery sites in Hazard with games and activities to entertain children while their parents filled out flood-recovery paperwork. Carper helped other chaplains and social workers set up tables at other sites. Carper has served as a hospice ambassador with the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, serves as co-chair of the Hospice Ethics Committee, and is part of the Clinical Ethics Consult Group. 

Samantha Craft, Social Worker—Above and Beyond Category 

Craft goes above and beyond to meet not only patient and family needs, but also those of her team members and the community.  During the Eastern Kentucky flooding in 2022, she volunteered to locate all available resources and become the BCN Resource Point person for her co-workers and BCN patients. She provided county specific information and offered regular communication about resources to patients, co-workers and community members. She has used her skills and knowledge to help victims of natural disasters in other states as well. Craft represents the core values of our BCN mission in all that she does and all that she is. 

Cindy Cummings, Director of Health Information Management—Distinguished Leader Category 

For almost 30 years, Cummings has overseen the evolution of BCN’s Health Information Management (HIM) Department. She is committed to the hospice mission and has touched more than 100,000 lives in her tenure at BCN. Her goal is to streamline processes to increase staff efficiency, while at the same time offering accessible, yet secure, patient data both internally and to external partners. Among many accomplishments at BCN, she recently played a pivotal role in successfully implementing an electronic medical record (EMR) change that consolidated BCN's service lines into a single platform. Through efficient systems, Cummings ensures that every patient is cared for with dignity, respect and integrity. 

Dianna Madden, Executive Director of Inpatient Services, and Manpreet Datta, Nurse Practitioner, PA-C, MPAS —Champion Category 

Madden and Datta are an exceptionally dedicated team and together have made significant contributions to the hospice industry. They partnered to successfully implement the innovative scatterbed hospice program at UK HealthCare and collaborated with healthcare teams to educate ICU bedside care teams about the benefits of hospice care. By tirelessly working to educate others, Madden and Datta have impacted more than 750 ICU patients in Kentucky and demonstrated their commitment to advancing the industry and its principles. Their work has influenced renowned hospitals, such as Johns Hopkins and Tampa General. By sharing their expertise and success, they have made a difference to hospice care well beyond their immediate community. 

“Our goal is to provide expert, connected care to our patients and families throughout Kentucky,” Monica Couch, Chief Hospice Officer, said. “Our team works tirelessly to provide excellent, holistic care to our patients and families. We are grateful and humbled as individuals and a team when we are recognized for serving our communities with compassion, expertise and kindness.” 

The Kentucky Association of Hospice and Palliative Care is a state non-profit organization representing hospices and palliative care organizations. Kentucky's hospices cover all 120 counties in the state and are comprised of free-standing hospice programs, hospital-based programs and programs that are in conjunction with home health programs. 

Bluegrass Care Navigators provides hospice care in 32 counties across central, eastern and northern Kentucky. Hospice care provides physical, personal, emotional and spiritual care to patients and families who are no longer receiving treatments to cure a terminal illness and instead choose to improve comfort and quality of life.  As a nonprofit organization, no one is turned away from Bluegrass Care Navigators based on ability to pay for hospice services.