Humans of Healthcare: Destini Payne

Destini Payne is an Environmental Service Technician who works at Mercy in the Shaw Heart Center. She ensures the operating tables are clean between surgeries and disinfects tools that are used for stress tests and heart ultrasounds. She’s been working there for five years. “It was hard when our visitation was restricted because the patients didn’t have people to bring in with them,” Payne said. “In the heart center, there’s not a lot of guests with them, but they want to talk. That’s something that we’re able to do and it really makes me smile to visit with our patients. “In the beginning of the pandemic, we stayed open for emergent cases, but most cases involving the heart are urgent. Now when needed, I go to other departments and help where I can. I’m not picking up extra hours, I’m just doing double duty. Our department has a shortage of staff. Right now, we’re training temps and trying to get them where they can be on their own. I know some people are scared to work in a hospital environment. I think you have to be a certain kind of person to do the work that we do. I enjoy my work very much. I work with a great group of nurses and techs. Payne said she is grateful for the community support. “There’s been a lot of community outreach from everyone in the community; signs around the hospital, superheroes work here signs, the Ford Family Foundation brought food trucks for everyone, there’s been letters and notes and just a lot of outreach of how grateful everybody is,” Payne said. “That’s refreshing to see that kind of support from the community.” *** Humans of Healthcare is a series of stories introducing people who work in the healthcare profession to the community at large, to see past "healthcare" as an institution and to see the humans at work inside. CHI Mercy Health was recently named one of the top 100 Rural & Community Hospitals in 2022 by the Chartis Center for Rural Health. Mercy is a proud employer of over 1,300 members of our community.