Compassion Rising

Personally and professionally, Shelley Stanko, MD, FACHE, chief medical officer for Saint Joseph London, Saint Joseph Berea and Saint Joseph Mount Sterling, is right at home. She lives and practices medicine in her hometown of London, Kentucky, and is based at Saint Joseph London, the ministry where she was born. Dr. Stanko views her leadership role as an extension of her clinical work.

“As an administrator, I’m still very much providing patient care, but I get to provide it across the community,” Dr. Stanko said. “I see my primary responsibility as expanding access to care and ensuring the highest quality of care for my community.”

When deadly floods affected eastern Kentucky in late July 2022, Dr. Stanko, like many others in her ministry, wanted to help. When word arrived that a Letcher County nursing home needed to evacuate its residents in the face of rising floodwaters, Dr. Stanko and other leaders offered to house the residents in a soon-to-be-repurposed unit at Saint Joseph London.

“The residents rode five hours on church buses to get to us,” Dr. Stanko said. “When they arrived, we practically had to carry them to wheelchairs and stretchers to take them to the unit.”

Dr. Stanko and her team arranged for beds and meals for the residents and sorted their medications. Additionally, she helped secure emergency hospital privileges for the nursing home’s physician, who was also displaced by the flooding, so the team could honor his patient orders. The residents stayed at Saint Joseph London for a week before they were able to return to their facility.

This summer, CommonSpirit Health honored Dr. Stanko with a Physician Enterprise Vision Award for Compassion for her efforts to help the nursing home residents.

Shelley Stanko, MD, FACHE, chief medical officer for Saint Joseph London, Saint Joseph Berea and Saint Joseph Mount Sterling, devotes much of her free time to service. She’s a leader in her church, a member of the Laurel County Board of Health and the medical director of the local health department. She also uses her passion for running to help ensure girls can follow in her footsteps.

A former college cross-country runner, Dr. Stanko met her husband on the team, and their three children are runners. This fall, Dr. Stanko will compete in the New York City Marathon, her 16th 26.2-mile race, to fundraise for a nonprofit called Bras for Girls. The organization donates sports bras and provides education about breast development to increase girls’ access to sports.

“One of the most common reasons girls drop out of sports is not having access to appropriate equipment, such as sports bras,” Dr. Stanko said. “Bras for Girls empowers girls in middle school and high school to stay involved in athletics for the physical, psychological and social benefits it provides.”