People Profile
Barbara Dimmitt, editor
The people in the Department of Radiology are the Department's greatest asset. They make our work enjoyable and add to the satisfaction of coming to work every day. People Profile recognizes and celebrates the invaluable contributions that each person makes to the overall success of the Department. Comments to the Editor are welcome.
Ramona Hambour
Radiology Technologist
November, 2009
A full life has embraced Ramona Hambour who is one of our long-term and outstanding technologists in the Radiology 
Department. This featured character sketch will begin with the present and wind its way to the past years.
In recent years, Ramona has had the itch to travel and has been able to take extensive vacations. One such trip this past year was cruising through the Panama Canal and traveling throughout Latin America. Being fluent in Spanish, she could communicate freely with everyone and no one could get the best of her. She finished this grand tour visiting old college chums in California.
Ms. Ramona’s name is synonymous with Ambassadorship, which she has been her entire life. She supports the hospitals’ health fair programs in the Cincinnati area. A few of these organizations are The Black Family Reunion, Su Casa, and Cinco De Cincy. These volunteers take on responsibilities such as administering blood pressure, screening for glucose, etc. She is one who contributes to the health and well being of the community and hospital with a soft voice and warm heart. Furthermore, she touches lives on a day-to-day basis with the ability to be used as a translator.
Ramona has certainly shown a love for her profession. She volunteered for the Daniel Beard Council Explorers to expose those high school boys and girls interested in the medical profession. In turn, the hospital allowed accessibility to all hospital operations for a nine month period. Exhausting, but as she explained, it was so worth the experience: the gratitude of the students could not be matched.
Long before Ramona established her days in the hospital setting, she graduated from college with a Home Economics degree in the hopes of obtaining a position at one of the gas utility companies in California. For those too young to be in the know, these companies used to test recipes and provided everyday information regarding the artistry of cooking. However, the opportunity did not present itself, and she had to rely on teaching as a new career but found no satisfaction. Ramona
returned to school and attended UCLA to receive an additional degree from the medical college. However, she is quick to
point out that, out of this experience, she still possesses a love for these arts (yes, these are an art), i.e., sewing, cooking
and baking. (Please refer to the cable food network and the food challenges.)
During an earlier time frame and before coming to Cincinnati, she worked two fulltime jobs in order for her daughter to receive a good education. For 13 years she was executive secretary to the president of Canisius High School, a Jesuit school in Buffalo, NY, and worked evenings at a hospital as a technologist. During her tenure, she took on the responsibility of chaperoning 40 (repeat 40!) high school young men to Italy. How could Ramona, being 4ft., 11in., keep those Italian women at bay? Pure spunkiness!
Like Doctors Without Borders, Ramona too, has crossed borders, and because of her having a caring touch, has attended several medical missions to Colonia, Mexico. This is a section of the country where poverty and neglect hits each individual with a real liability. She believes bringing medical assistance and a caring heart provides people hope. These experiences make one take on a fresh view of how much we in the USA have to be thankful.
As a wrap up to this department’s profile, a few “editorial” comments are a must.
If the opportunity arises and Ramona shares her fares with fellow workers, delve into one of her spicy Mexican and Spanish dishes. Once you taste her specialties, you will get hooked and your taste buds will begin to spike on queue!
Also, because of Ramona’s return to college, we have been rewarded with an employee that calls University Hospital a second “home.” For such a wee bit of a person, she demonstrates what a health care worker signifies through her dedication to this hospital’s ambassadorship program and volunteerism.