Christine Castilla does a truly outstanding job providing kind, compassionate and conscientious care every day. She is the "heart and soul" of our medical practice in this clinic and works tirelessly for the benefit of our patients. I will provide a couple of specific and verifiable examples from today that are representative of the quality and heart of her work that occurs every day.

Patient H discharged himself AMA from the hospital yesterday, comes to our clinic today because he is uncomfortable and short of breath. He had been on oxygen when he was in the hospital with a severe illness, was grumpy and tired as he had just suffered a miserable night of not sleeping - as he left AMA nobody from the hospital addressed the issue of his oxygenation. He is a wounded combat vet with severe PTSD, did very poorly in the hospital partially due to his PTSD from his Vietnam injuries. Christine talked to him on the phone and got him into the clinic, made numerous phone calls, orders, coordination of resources, and truly went way out of her way to insure he had oxygen delivered to his home this afternoon. She made it happen right in the middle of her normal busy schedule of duties and responsibilities.

Patient L also recently discharged from the hospital last week, not able to walk, wife struggling to provide care at home, came into clinic with confusion as to what meds he is taking with no hospital discharge info from his civilian hospital. Christine quickly and efficiently obtained some basic discharge summaries, organized the information, coordinated getting the visiting nurse to get out to the home today to figure out exactly what medication he is taking and to assess the home situation for assistance and dealt with kindness and compassion to a frightened and frustrated elderly spouse who has a language barrier and no idea how to obtain assistance or resources. Christine did a tremendous job recognizing a situation and person struggling, reaching out far beyond her job description with kindness, compassion and expertise to insure that we get help to a family in need.

These two examples demonstrate the kind of excellence that is the norm as Christine is always reaching above and beyond normal expectations to help patients and families. These are typical of the small but important interactions that she performs every day to truly make a difference in improving the lives and the medical care of our most deserving Veterans. This care is always done with kindness, patience, respect, compassion and competence.