Compassionate patient care drives Reid Health's inaugural Advanced Practice Provider of the Year winner

Perseverance and determination have carried Deanna Medley, NP, through personal challenges and tragedy to a career focused on compassionate, patient-centered care.

As a nocturnist hospitalist for Reid Hospitalist Group, she ensures patient-focused care continues seamlessly through the night.

Colleagues describe her as driven, respectful of others, and committed to excellence. As an advocate, mentor, and collaborative teammate, she answers questions clearly, provides expert clinical judgment, and is regarded for her diagnostic skill.

With both bedside skill and empathy, she doesn’t just treat illness — she brings comfort to the whole person.

Medley was selected as Reid Health’s first recipient of the Advanced Practice Provider (APP) of the Year Award for her commitment to clinical quality, compassion toward patients and families, support for colleagues, and efforts to improve programs and services that enhance the health and quality of life within Reid’s service area.

Her selection was announced Thursday night at a celebration dinner to recognize APPs for their contributions. Nominations were solicited from patients, physicians, and healthcare workers.

Ben Wells, Reid Health President/CEO, said choosing from the nominees was difficult, but Medley’s inspiring perseverance and high level of collaboration and compassion stood out.

“With the work Deanna does and the way she does it, she serves as an example and inspiration to others, especially our patients who trust us in their most vulnerable moments,” Wells said.

“She demonstrates professionalism, compassion, and competence that help patients feel comfortable the care they receive at Reid is appropriate, best-in-class, and they’ll be well taken care of.”

The award was established to shine a light on the exceptional contributions APPs make across the health system. The annual honor will recognize APPs who consistently live out the mission of Reid, demonstrate excellence in practice, and serve as role models for their peers. Any APP nominated must be a full-time member of Reid’s medical staff.

A native of Eaton, Ohio, Medley had an early interest in becoming a nurse. While a Girl Scout, she created an art piece answering the question, “What do you want to be when  you grow up?” Her response was a nurse, spelling the word with an e instead of a u. Years later, she found the artwork at her grandmother’s home where she grew up.

Medley’s path to nursing was anything but simple.

“I have a very complicated life,” she said. “I had my first son at 13 years old. Leslie and I are actually both millennials.”

As she watched the labor and delivery nurses that cared for her, nursing was a career she knew she would love.

Just a few years later, tragedy changed Medley’s life. Her mother helped to take care of her son while Medley was at school. One day while driving home from daycare, her mother – who had epilepsy – suffered a seizure, causing her to collide with a semi.

“She died at just 38 years old. I was 16, and my son was 3. He was in the car with her and experienced a traumatic brain injury,” Medley said.

“My life was never the same. I was very motivated to make sure I had a career for me and my kids.”

She worked hard to overcome obstacles as a young mother pursuing a nursing degree – and faced more complications from a serious car accident of her own six months later. Yet, she was determined to persevere.

“I was always very motivated,” Medley said. “I was going to be a nurse.”

Medley balanced motherhood with academics, earning her associate degree in nursing from Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio. She waited until her second son, her youngest, started kindergarten to earn her bachelor’s degree and later a master’s from the University of Cincinnati College of Nursing in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Her career began at Miami Valley Hospital and then at Bethesda North Hospital in Cincinnati. She gained nursing experience in maternity, intensive, and acute care, before advancing to nurse practitioner and later a hospitalist.

In June 2021, Medley joined Reid as a nocturnist hospitalist on the night shift.

Stacia Robertson, RN, Director of CDI & Inpatient Physician Services, said Medley brought a sense of community to the team and continues to be a leader.

"She’s just the person you want on your team,” Robertson said. “She cares about her patients. She cares about her co-workers, and she tries to do the right thing for whoever is involved. She practices compassionate medicine and makes sure she puts the patient first.”

Robertson said Medley also contributes solutions, including developing a buprenorphine order set to treat substance misuse.

Cherie Frame, NP, Reid Hospitalist Group, said it’s Medley’s warmth and sincerity that gives her the ability to connect with others around her.

“Deanna is magnetic,” Frame said. “She always has a story to tell, and she just pulls people in.”

Medley and Frame serve on Reid’s Advanced Practice Committee.

“Deanna possesses a rare quality that she becomes very engaged in whatever she does,” Frame said. “She's excellent at the patient’s bedside in any kind of critical situation. She just brings calm to the storm.”

Justin Varghese, MD, Hospitalist Medical Director & Section Chief, Reid Hospitalist Group, said nights can get hectic for the team.

“She’s the one when it gets extremely busy, that’s somebody you want along your side,” he said. “She's very much team-oriented.”

“There are times where it’s super busy and I'll tell Deanna, ‘Hey, the ER isn’t stopping with admissions.’ Her response is always, ‘You just give me whatever you need and we’ll get through the night.’ That positive attitude she brings always helps the team.”

It was Medley’s husband, Mike, who encouraged her to join the hospitalist staff during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, she was working inpatient pulmonology for Bethesda North while he was the core lab manager at Reid. The sense of hospitality and a feeling of being valued as a provider convinced her to join Reid.

Medley also serves the community through The Nest and Reid Health PACE.

The Nest is a maternal treatment center serving as an outpatient rehabilitation program before and after childbirth for women with drug and alcohol dependency issues, located at LifeSpring Church in Richmond.

Medley provides postpartum care for the program, created by Reid Health and Meridian Health Services in 2021.

She gained experience caring for mothers with substance misuse as a nursing student on the maternity unit at Miami Valley. At first, she struggled with caring for them without judgment, but an early experience and her faith helped to change her perspective. She now views her role as keeping mothers safe and giving their babies the best chance at life.

Taylor Thompson, Nurse Navigator for The Nest, said Medley focuses on the whole person.

“She has a good attitude about everything she puts her mind to, and she really cares for the patients she encounters,” Thompson said.

Reid Health PACE serves seniors age 55 and older with personalized care plans to help them live independently. Between PACE and The Nest, she serves the community about three days a week, plus every third weekend she’s the provider on-call for PACE.

It’s a way for her to alleviate the burden for medical staff where she can, Medley said.

Family is at the center of her life and career. Growing up in her grandparents’ home, she learned to serve her community and to work hard.

Outside of work, she enjoys time with her family, including two grandsons and her grandmother. She likes to travel, often to Atlanta, Georgia, where her husband now works. 
“He’s my rock. Mr. Medley keeps me sane and he keeps me grounded,” she said.

She’s humbled to be recognized among colleagues she feels are just as deserving.

“I feel like so many of us just kind of work in the shadows, and we're OK with that. We're OK just taking care of the patients,” Medley said. “It's a terrific honor to be chosen.”

Her experiences have shaped who she is, giving her a deeper connection to her patients, their families, and her team members.

“I don’t want people to have to endure the pain of loss like I did, if I can help it,” Medley said. “If we can’t prevent it, then I want to give them time to process. It really makes me more empathetic to patients. We work hard to take care of people."