St. Francis-Emory Healthcare Names 2021 Mercy Award Winner

St. Francis-Emory Healthcare recently announced that Paige Harford has been recognized as the hospital’s 2021 Mercy Award winner. The Mercy Award recognizes one employee from each of LifePoint Health’s hospitals 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.

“At St. Francis-Emory Healthcare, we share LifePoint’s commitment to making communities healthier, and we recognize this is supported by the good work and service of our employees on and off the job,” said Melody Trimble, CEO of St. Francis. “We are extremely proud to recognize Paige for her efforts on behalf of our patients and our community. She goes above and beyond each and every day to ensure that every person she encounters receives the highest level of care and compassion.” 

As executive director of clinical practice, she supports and leads while inspiring others with compassion and respect to providing high-quality care to every patient. In 2020, she led the clinical quality and safety efforts through the pandemic. In addition, she was the point of contact for COVID-19 standards and all testing. While the calls, questions, and requests were numerous and frequent, she welcomed each one with patience, understanding, and excellence.

Paige was an advocate for all St. Francis team members early in the pandemic, stating “that no matter how successful we were in staring down the virus if we failed to support our team, we had lost the fight.” Her calm approach and open communication helped allay the fear and anxiety present in the unprecedented year. She also led and participated in community programs like United Way, Food Bank drives, Back to School drives, and blood drives. Outside of work, she participates in organizations supporting various Booster Club activities. Paige is one of St. Francis’ biggest cheerleaders, which is apparent in the countless WOO-HOOs when celebrating successes.

Each hospital winner, including Paige, will be considered for LifePoint’s 2021 companywide Mercy Award. The companywide winner will be announced this summer and honored during a ceremony in Nashville, Tenn., in August, to which Paige and all hospital winners are invited to attend.