Clinical Manager Deb Hamel, RTRM CN-BI is a long-standing fixture at Derry Imaging. She has been with us for sixteen years, which we consider impressive in and of itself. Hamel is an imager, but beyond that she is an educator of other imagers, which makes her an even more fascinating member of our staff. She is also a Certified Breast Health Navigator in Breast Imaging.
When Hamel joined Derry Imaging she chose our practice because of several factors. Her management position at another location was ending and she realized that she wanted to be near a strong educational system for her young children. Hamel said, “[My kids] were in the Derry school system and I wanted them to go to Pinkerton and we’ve since relocated to Londonderry.” In addition to the educational system, Hamel enjoys the setting. She said, “I’m situated in the middle of the apple orchards. When I go to the big cities I get shell-shocked.”
When she is on-site at Derry Imaging, Hamel enjoys the interactions her patients and coworkers. Hamel said, “I’ve established the same patients and the same rapport. It’s like old home week when they come in to see me. I’ve made a lot of good connections [with patients]. We actually have a very good rapport as far as coworkers too. They get along very well. We collectively have over 200 years of work service maintaining our clinical staff. They’ve been there 10+ years. We have a good retention rate.”
In addition to her duties at Derry Imaging, Hamel teaches mammography. Hamel was initially recruited to teach positioning at a conference. “I’ve always wanted to teach and I went to a conference in Las Vegas and a woman I work with gave my name to someone who was looking for the east coast. I interviewed and I’ve been doing it ever since. I love being a mentor for other Mammographers and I get to meet new people.” said Hamel.
One of the reasons the teaching Hamel does is so important has to do with process standardization. She said, “In the past there were ten people doing ten different ways [of mammography imaging] and now we’re standardizing positioning – uniform positioning – teaching proper ergonomics reducing the incidence of work injuries..” This sort of education is leading directly to better patient care.
Hamel deeply appreciates being able to work at Derry Imaging with her team. Hamel noted, “It’s a good place to work we have our consistent patient base. Everyone here has a very good work ethic. Patients come first. I’m very fortunate to have the staff working under me that I do. We’re a family here and I don’t really see that in other facilities that I go to.”
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