Cecil Miller, UPMC Chautauqua vice president of operations, is pictured Friday morning raising the Pride flag outside the hospital’s main entrance. The flag will stay up through June. P-J photo by Eric Tichy

A new flag is flying outside UPMC Chautauqua this month.

Employees took part in a brief Pride flag raising ceremony Friday morning outside the front entrance of the 207 Foote Ave. hospital in Jamestown. It followed a similar ceremony held last weekend at City Hall during the first Pride Festival to recognize and celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community.

Raising the flag at the hospital was Cecil Miller, UPMC Chautauqua vice president of operations.

“One of our core values is treating everybody with dignity and respect, whether it’s employees and certainly our patients or visitors,” Miller said. “So we thought this is a great symbol to the community that our hospital stresses diversity, equity, inclusion for our patients, our staff, our doctors. We want everybody to know that no matter who they are they will get the same high-quality care from our hospital and our staff.”

The flag will stay up through the rest of June, recognized as Pride Month.

The event was sponsored by the hospital’s Employee Experience Team, established in March 2020. The group, a spokeswoman said, aims to engage employees by connecting them with each other, and “fostering a valued relationship between employees and the hospital. They help to coordinate events that in turn help other staff feel more engaged and inspired and maximize their experience.”