COVID-19 infection preventionist honored for efforts

Posted: 10/06/2022

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An infection preventionist at Good Samaritan Society – Miller Pointe in Mandan, North Dakota, Savannah Boltz, RN, has been very busy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It has been the hardest years that I hope I ever experience in my career. From shutting down visitation to having to call families on an iPad,” says Savannah, who started in health care as a CNA in high school.

“When the pandemic started, you didn’t know how many people were going to survive. You were getting that positive test. You were moving them to a COVID unit, and you didn’t know if they were coming out.”

When the long-term care center had an outbreak early on, administrator Kayley Cartmill remembers Savannah’s dedication.

“She came in at 3 a.m. She worked all day. Worked until 12 a.m. that next night,” Kayley says. “She was doing anything from contract tracing, moving residents, caring for residents, building a COVID wall. She was doing it all. Willing to help wherever she could to ensure the residents were safe and well cared for during that time.”

Savannah ‘means the world to me’

Visiting her dad every day at the nursing home, Gayle Ciavarella says Savannah and the team here make everyone feel safe and welcome.

“She feels like part of my family and it means the world to me honestly,” Gayle says. “I’m a person with a lot of questions and she always takes the time.”