source: http://healtheyou.thocc.org/2015/02/hospital-physician-receives-petit-award/

Hospital physician receives Petit award

FEBRUARY 2015 ISSUE

BY ROBIN LEE MICHAEL

Dr. Michael J. McNamee, FCCP, FAARC, a pulmonologist who has dedicated his career to The Hospital of Central Connecticut (HOCC), was recently honored with the William A. Petit, Jr., M.D., Physician Service Award.

The annual award is given to a physician member of the hospital’s medical staff to recognize extraordinary commitment and service to the hospital, the community, the medical staff or patients.

This award, presented in December to McNamee, is named in honor of Petit, former medical director of the hospital’s former Joslin Diabetes Center Affiliate and director of endocrinology, metabolism and diabetes. The Petit Family Foundation which he created in memory of his wife, Jennifer Lynn Hawke-Petit, and their daughters, Hayley Elizabeth Petit and Michaela Rose Petit, funds programs focused on young people’s education, chronic illness and those that support people affected by violence.

It’s a great kindness to be recognized for doing something well, especially something that you love so much,” McNamee says. “I can’t imagine having had any other career. It has been rewarding, inspiring and consuming. What more could anyone ask?

McNamee came to the former New Britain General Hospital in 1980, following his fellowship in pulmonary medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is former director of the Intensive Care Unit and Pulmonary Medicine. He has chaired the Critical Care Committee and Institutional Ethics Committee, which he established; he also served on the Infection Control and Staff Executive committees. He has also been president of the Connecticut Thoracic Society and the Hartford County Medical Association Board of Directors, on which he has served since 1997.

He has also taught at the University of Connecticut (UConn) School of Medicine, UConn School of Nursing, Yale University School of Nursing and Quinnipiac University’s undergraduate Respiratory Care program. At HOCC, McNamee has been site director in Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine for UConn fellows, residents and medical students during Intensive Care Unit rotation. McNamee is also a past president of the Hartford County Medical Association and serves on its Board of Directors.