Recognizing 2025 Rhapsody Healthcare Heroes Award nominee: Myron Thompson Health Centre Lab Combined Lab and X-Ray Technologists (CLXT)
Community: Sundre
An upbeat healthcare group in Sundre is being recognized for stepping outside their responsibilities during challenging times to help colleagues and patients.
The Combined Lab and X-Ray Technologists (CLXT) team “has taken on so much, they truly are health care heroes who make personal sacrifices to [provide] the Myron Thompson Health Centre (MTHC) emergency department with diagnostic services,” notes Kaylee Richards, a clinical supervisor with Alberta Precision Laboratories, in supporting the group’s nomination for a 2025 Rhapsody Healthcare Heroes Award.
It’s been busy time for the group as they have navigated a hospital renovation, dealt with equipment failures, faced a shortage of staff and leadership, and implemented a Beckman Coulter Access 2 analyzer which helps diagnose heart issues, among other challenges, she writes.
“In spite of being short staffed for the past 18 plus months and having minimal site leadership, the lab/diagnostic imaging staff have been committed to serving the inpatients and outpatients at the MTHC in Sundre,” adds Joyce Wicks, chair of the Sundre Health Professionals Attraction and Retention Committee.
The group’s dedication goes far beyond their department responsibilities. They will mentor two students this fall and have supported RhPAP Let’s Go Rural! events and community fundraisers and regularly assist colleagues.
“Often, when they are in between patients, they can be found helping nursing staff clean emergency department rooms so that they can efficiently get another patient in and cared for,” says Chantal Crawford, who serves as the hospital’s site manager.
“They work hard to train with the healthcare team and are effective in their roles often jumping in to help with airway and chest compressions during a code, allowing nursing staff to focus on starting intravenous and administering life saving medications,” Crawford says.
“The CLXT team, though exhausted, short staffed and having to work several extra hours, is by far one of the happiest teams at the MTHC. You can constantly hear laughter coming from their department and the team always greets everyone with a smile and upbeat attitude,” she says.
“The amount of work they have completed without complaint is almost incomprehensible.”