Children’s Minnesota is pleased to announce its winners of the 2025 Minnesota Hospital Association (MHA) Spring Awards. MHA awards recognize excellence in health care innovation, workforce development and leadership among Minnesota hospitals and health systems. This year, Children’s Minnesota was recognized in two categories.
Quality and Safety Category
A team of kid experts, including Margot Zarin-Pass, MD, pediatric hospitalist; Abby Montague, MD, pediatric medical toxicologist; Mike Raschka, PharmD, clinical pharmacy coordinator; and Courtney Kenefick, DNP, APRN, CNS, clinical nurse specialist, received the Substance Use Disorders Award in the Quality and Safety Category.
The award recognizes hospitals and health systems that made significant contributions in reducing substance-use related events through medical staff training or process improvement.
The team created an opioid withdrawal guideline. This was developed in response to increasing rates of opioid dependency in pediatric patients and withdrawal development after hospital admission. After creating it, the team trained nurses on opioid withdrawal assessment, and trained emergency and hospital medicine physicians on how to adopt the guideline into clinical practice, providing evidence-based, crucial care to an often-stigmatized patient population. They also worked to ensure relevant medications, including naloxone, a medicine that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose, are available on Children’s Minnesota campuses.
This team of kid experts continue to champion the work by advocating for patients experiencing substance use disorders, and partnering with community groups and county agencies to improve outpatient transition.
Communications Category
Nick Petersen, public relations lead at Children’s Minnesota, received the Editorial Excellence Award in the Communications Category. The award recognized Nick’s commitment to mission-focused storytelling for his efforts in sharing the compelling journey of Temi, a heart transplant patient at Children’s Minnesota.
In February 2023, Temi was admitted to the cardiovascular care center at Children’s Minnesota and diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy and heart failure. She wouldn’t be able to leave the hospital without a heart transplant. After about 16 months of waiting, she got her new heart. Nick worked closely with the family, the clinical team and media to highlight Temi’s journey. As Temi was nearing one year as an inpatient, Nick worked with KARE 11 to showcase how the care team had supported both Temi and her family during their stay.
A new heart arrived for Temi in June 2024. She was discharged and finally back home with her family a week later. A few weeks later when the family was ready to share the update, Nick went back to KARE and arranged an interview at the family’s new home. The story captured Temi and her family’s joy after such a challenging journey.
Learn about all the MHA award winners here.
