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We have all lost a wonderful family member, friend, mentor, and colleague with the passing of Janet Kay Wilson. Jan died December 18, 2009 after a one year struggle with ovarian cancer.
Jan leaves behind her younger sister Kathi and Jan’s much loved niece and nephew, Sarah and Matthew. Jan’s family resides in Ohio.
Before her death Jan asked that in lieu of flowers donations be made to:
Memorial Medical Center Foundation
Janet Kay Wilson Endowment
2801 Atlantic Avenue
PO Box 1428
Long Beach, CA 90801-9961
A Celebration of Life for Jan will be February 4th, 2010 at 3:30 PM on the campus of Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, Houssel’s Forum. Please see the PDF flyer available HERE.
2801 Atlantic Avenue
Long Beach, CA 90806
Cards and remembrances can be sent to Jan’s family at the above address in care of the Department of Pathology.
After graduating from Ohio State, Jan began her career in Blood Bank at a community hospital in Des Moines, Iowa in 1968. Always looking ahead, Jan set her sights on moving to California where in 1972 she became Blood Bank Supervisor at St. John’s Hospital and Health Center in Santa Monica, CA.
In 1978 Jan was recruited by Dr. Asa Barnes M.D., Blood Bank Medical Director at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center (LBMMC) to be the Blood Bank Education Coordinator for Memorial’s Blood Bank Specialist (SBB) program. Jan especially loved this job as it played to her natural strengths for teaching and mentoring. She was a gift to all who participated in the SBB program and many of her former students remained her dear friends and were at her bedside at the time of her death.
In 1984 Jan became the Blood Bank Supervisor at Long Beach Memorial.
Around this same time, Jan also began her successful work with the California Blood Bank Society (CBBS) where she became Co-Chairman of the Pheresis Committee and participated in the Scientific Program Committee as a member and again as the Committee Chairman. She went on to become Chairman for the CBBS Awards Committee. Two years later, Jan herself was awarded the distinguished CBBS Owens Thomas, M.D. Award for which she was very proud.
Jan pursed her active membership in the national organization the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB). She participated in the AABB’s Technical Workshop committee for six years and remained to the end an AABB inspector both for facility accreditation and for SBB programs in hospitals around the nation. She led or participated in many AABB committees through out her career, but the two committees with a lasting impact on her, and on us, were the Standards Committee and the Transfusion Service Quality Assurance Committees. Out of these committees came the AABB’s Quality Program which lives on today in many transfusion services across the country. Jan crafted our own Quality Program for the large Dept. of Pathology at LBMMC using her knowledge and experience gained from giving life to the AABB Quality Program.
Jan authored or co-authored six publications during her career on various Blood Bank topics. A few of the topics were Blood Bank genetics, the appropriate blood products for patients having hip replacements, reducing neonatal donor exposure thru luekodepletion techniques, and covering the use of computers in the Blood Bank.
Jan was also a distinguished guest speaker for many professional organizations across the country for whom she gave nearly 40 workshops and presentations through out her career.
In 1997 Jan transitioned to become the Quality Assurance Supervisor for the Department of Pathology at LBMMC, a position she held until her death.
At LBMMC, Jan worked closely for many years with the Nursing Policy and Procedures Committee and was a valued team member having made many contributions to their efforts. She was very proud of the work she was able to do with the Nursing committee and she enjoyed wonderful friendships along the way. Jan also participated in the hospital wide Patient Safety Committee and thoroughly enjoyed the big picture view from working with this Committee.
Throughout Jan’s days as Blood Bank Supervisor, her beloved Blood Bank staff at LBMMC was mentored and tutored and cajoled into excellence by Jan’s persistence and focus on the right thing to do. Jan was perhaps the most productive of employees and once she started using the word processing programs, the Jan Wilson Printing Press was born. She produced more policies and procedures than anyone could ever have imagined.
To her management colleagues Jan was uniquely gifted, bright, articulate, inquisitive and always asking for a better understanding after which she would provide amazing clarity to the complex issues at hand. She taught her fellow managers quality assurance Blood Bank style and instructed them on how to evaluate and improve processes. She was eager to take on the most difficult of assignments and did so with passion and creativity. Her diligent work nearly six years ago using LEAN principles in Pathology serves as an example of this. Jan was always ahead of the curve.
She will be greatly missed.
Diane M. Thomas, MT (ASCP) CLS
Executive Director, Pathology and Healthtech Laboratories
Long Beach Memorial Medical Center
Long Beach, CA