A few weeks ago, I noticed a “rave” for Ballard Market in the “Rants and Raves” section in the Sunday paper.

Ballard Market had made a gift of specially ordered flowers on behalf of an employee celebrating 45 years of service at Ballard Swedish Hospital. That would be Zita.

Zita Niemeyer has worked at Ballard Hospital for 45 years, starting when it was Ballard Community Hospital and now as Swedish Hospital. She is manager of surgical services.

When she found out that Ballard Market insisted on donating the special order of zinnias ordered by her husband Phil, she asked son Joel to help her submit a “rave” to the Seattle Times.

In turn it was Joel, by coincidence one of my favorite readers, who convinced his mother to let me interview her.

Zita didn’t want to talk about herself, but she’s always eager show off surgical services. For several hours last week, I tried to keep pace as we charged through the hospital, lay in wait for the Executive Director and experienced the love fest that exists between her and her surgical staff.

Her small office has family photos and surgical works of art created by her husband Phil, an interior designer. The clock hands pass scalpel blades and along the wall is a framed display of surgeon’s needles.

Zita bubbles with enthusiasm about the department, as though it’s a brand new toy, not a 45-year love affair.

She’s proud that Ballard Surgery Department has the highest employee satisfaction ratings of all the departments and their patient surveys show 99 percent satisfaction.

She treasures letters from surgical patients stating they wouldn’t have their surgery anyplace else.

Of course, Zita puts all of the credit on her staff of 35 to 40 nurses and support staff, as well as the surgeons and anesthesiologists.

She loves that nurses approach her with their own ideas for improving quality; she has found, in working on what’s called “best practices,” that Ballard is often ahead of the curve.

Tuesdays are the busiest days ever since Dr. Downer started performing minimally invasive total hip replacement at Ballard on that day of the week.

Zita also credits the hospital’s ongoing surgical renaissance and diversification to Executive and Medical Director Rayburn Lewis, who is recruiting dynamic new surgeons to Ballard.

“I’ve just got the best nurses,” Zita said throughout the tour of waiting room, recovery room and surgical suites, her blue eyes bright above the hospital-green scrubs.

At various stops she introduced a nurse by name, identifying their particular passion, scheduling, policy-writing, data management, etc. The nurses all beamed at Zita.

“She doesn’t try to mother us,” one said, “but we’re like family.”

“She’s truly interested in our ideas,” said another nurse. “Shared leadership is not just a concept.”

“Staff rarely leave the surgical department,” Zita admitted. “Unless they move from Seattle.”

Meanwhile Zita continued to look on every person, object and department fondly, from the new reclining chair for waiting family members to electronic file sharing to the Community Health Clinic on the fourth floor and the display of pharmaceutical bottles she found at a garage sale and donated to the hospital.

Outside of her work, Zita and Phil Niemeyer celebrated their 50th anniversary on Nov. 15. They raised two sons in Ballard, and over the course of a decade ran a bed and breakfast from their home on View Ridge.

She and Phil currently live five minutes from the hospital and conveniently close to Ballard Market.

Asked about the zinnia order (Zita’s favorite) that led to the Seattle Times “rave,” store manager Steve Williams is embarrassed by all the attention it has received.

He got wind of the order and told the floral manager, “For goodness sake, let’s just donate the flowers. Someone who’s served the community for 45 years deserves them.”

His mother worked at Overlake Hospital for 30 years before her death some nine years ago. Steve knows well that the healthcare profession can sometimes be thankless.

Steve heard about the “rave” when his sister spotted it in the newspaper and called to ask, “Did you do that because of mom?”

As he told his sister then and has explained since, “It was just the right thing to do.” He knows Zita Niemeyer and says, “She revs up the store every time that she comes in. She’s a hoot.”

As for Zita, the one thing that she downplays at the hospital is her own 45 years of service, saying, “I don’t believe in changing jobs. If you have some hard times or don’t like something, just make it better.”

As for retiring, don’t even ask the question. Zita loves “her” nurses and she loves “her” surgeons, but obviously it’s raves all around.

Peggy Sturdivant can be reached atlargeinballard@yahoo.com.