I was working with a patient in palliative care. He was ready for his life to come to an end. What he was not prepared for was how long it would take. Since A did not have the symptoms needed for the PCU, we were recommending a nursing home with hospice. Financially, A and his wife were in a difficult position. He was so worried that the small nest egg that he and his wife accumulated would be used up so quickly (which it would have been), with him in a nursing home. In addition, after paying for his nursing home bed for a period of time while their nest egg was weaned down, they would have had to continue to pay for his SNF bed in order to have hospice as part of their team.
A had served in the military, but was not actively attempting to pursue increased VA coverage. In fact, he didn't fill out the paperwork. His wife was difficult when both case managers were attempting to assist them in filling out the VA paperwork, in hopes that the VA would be able to financially assist them.
Chris went above and beyond to assist A by completely finishing and submitting his VA paperwork, calling lots of personnel to expedite the processing of his form, and the foresight to start calling the CLC frequently to find out if there would be room for A eventually and searched out a nursing home associated with the VA. Even before A's VA paperwork had processed, most people would not have had the forethought to find a bed for him that would be able to easily transition him to VA coverage when it eventually processed.
Chris advocated and supported A and his wife, even when they were nearly unwilling to support themselves. His outcome ended up being the best outcome that could have happened because of Chris. Chris deserves to receive a DAISY Award for her dedication to our patients.