By Jeff Troth, U.S. Army Medical Department Activity -- Fort Carson PAO
FORT CARSON, Colo. -- Evans Army Community Hospital has won the U.S. Army Medical Command Barney Richmond Facility Management Award for the second year in a row.
Aaron Hicks, Evans facility engineer, was presented the award during a ceremony at the hospital Sept. 27, 2017.
"It is an honor to get this award, but I am still kind of numb," said Hicks, who received the R. B. Maynor Memorial Quality Assurance Evaluation Award last year. "I think us getting this award is a representation of the people I work with -- it was a team effort. It takes a shop to do a job, and it isn't just an individual."
During the past year, Hicks has been one of the individuals involved in two major projects at Evans. The first is replacing two 30-year-old air handlers that service the hospital's operating rooms, the Post Anesthesia Care Unit (recovery room), Intensive Care Unit and the Mountain Post Birthing Center's two Caesarean section operating rooms and nursery. The other was replacing the hospital's substations and motor control stations.
"Aaron has been very instrumental in developing the scope of work in these projects," said Rashad Rajab, Evans' facility manager and recipient of the 2016 Barney Richmond Facility Management Award. "His job didn't stop once the contractors started working, though. He has had to work closely with the contractor and the (Army) Corps of Engineers in developing resolutions which may arise during a project. All projects, especially ones this big, are going to have issues occur which are unforeseeable at the beginning of the contract."
Rajab said Hicks' 21 years at Evans has helped him figure out what problems might come up 90 percent of the time, but one never knows exactly what he is going to get when tearing down a wall or taking down a ceiling in the 31-year old hospital.
"He has every inch of this facility in his head," said Rajab. "As the facility engineer, he knows all of the systems in the hospital and is technically competent on all of them and is able to provide guidance to our maintenance and construction contractors."
Hicks has almost 38 years as an engineer for the government, 16 of them with Navy ships.
"But I was hired here 21 years ago as a general engineer," he said. "I have learned a lot about this hospital over the years and have seen the hospital go through some significant changes."
He has also been involved in the renovation of three inpatient floors, the expansion of the nutrition care division and emergency room and remodeling of the radiology department. The hospital has grown over the past 21 years, to include the addition of two MRI suites, the Woods Soldier and Family Care Center and the hospital's adminis?tration and headquarters building.
"Aaron deserves this award because he represents the technical expertise a facility management staff needs to have," said Rajab. "Barney Richmond, who this award was named for, was the facility director for the northwest region at Madigan (Army Medical Center, Joint Base Lewis-McChord). He was considered the center of expertise for MEDCOM facilities and he knew facilities top to bottom."
According to Rajab, Hicks' knowledge of Evans and his technical proficiency is what made him the perfect recipient of this year's award.
"Winning the award two years in a row goes to show how much dedication and heart we put into our jobs here, and how we feel about this place which is like a home away from home for many of us," said Rajab. "This award shows that Aaron and the rest of the facilities section are really serious about our work, and we put our heart into our work every day."
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