Doctor of the year for 2021 is Dr Thomas Zimmerer

The most outstanding employees were recognised at East Tallinn Central Hospital’s traditional end-of-year thanksgiving ceremony. During the 17th annual Employee of the Year competition, gastroenterologist–chief physician Dr Thomas Zimmerer was awarded the title of Doctor of the Year.

Dr Zimmerer has been working at the hospital since 2016 and has reorganised the work of the Centre of Endoscopy, systematised the registration of examinations and introduced referral for urgent examinations, organised the guidance of patients coming for examinations and a friendly social environment.

According to the Doctor of the Year, the prolonged Covid pandemic has added to the stress and strain in both personal and professional terms: “The crisis taught me that it’s not enough just to manage work processes and draw up schedules – you have to communicate with people constantly and actively.”

Orthopaedist Andrey Smirnov and ophthalmologist Mari Tamsalu were also highlighted as notable doctors.

Head of nursing at the Centre of Urology Merle Paliale was awarded the title of Nurse of the Year with recognised candidates including Head of Midwifery at the Department of Antenatal Care Annaliisa Kruutmann and Head of Bioanalytical Activities at the Centre of Pathology Kristi Laht.

Care worker Tatjana Kortševskaja from the Centre of Cardiology was named the Care Worker of the Year, while the Centre of Nuclear Medicine department assistant Marina Žuravljova and care worker Olga Khoteeva from the Centre of Nursing Care were also highlighted as candidates.

In addition, acknowledgement was given to the Clinical Support Specialist of the Year (Outpatient Rehabilitation Centre Activity Therapist Ingmar Ignatenko), Cleaning Personnel of the Year (Natalia Borovskaya from the Management Department), Customer Service Representative of the Year (Ketlin Mõlder from the Customer Service Department), Secretary of the Year (Board Assistant Ilona Trummal), Non-Clinical Specialist of the Year (Deputy Chief Accountant Margot Väät), Nursing and Care Traineeship Instructor of the Year (Centre of Emergency Medicine Nurse Liisa Põld), Resident Doctor and Medical Student Instructor of the Year (General Surgeon-Chief Physician Airi Tark) and Trainer of the Year (Department Head of Nursing from the Centre of Nursing Care Ruth Pärs).

Kristiine Shopping Centre was named Partner of the Year as they allowed us to display a history exhibition for nearly 9 months in celebration of the hospital’s anniversary.

The ceremony also acknowledged people who defended a doctoral thesis in the past year: Resident Doctor Teele Palumaa from the Eye Clinic Interplay between retinal light responses and the circadian clock, and their implications for retinal degenerative diseases, Pathologist Georgi Džaparidze (Quantification and evaluation of the diagnostic significance of adenocarcinoma-associated microenvironmental changes in the prostate using modern digital pathology solutions) and Gynaecologist-Chief Physician Konstantin Ridnõi (The implementation and the effectiveness of the new strategies for prenatal diagnostics in Estonia).

East Tallinn Central Hospital awarded a bonus for the medical record description published in the journal Eesti Arst in 2020 titled Pesugeelikapslist põhjustatud mürgistus (Poisoned by a laundry detergent pod) (by Tiia Voor).