I wanted to reach out and let you know what an excellent experience I had with my father last week and give proper recognition to your amazing team, and all the staff at Ascension Saint. Agnes. 

Dad's PCP sent him to the ER around noon Thursday for numbness and redness in his foot. Within 2-3 hours, a vascular ultrasound, x-ray, and CT had been completed and Vascular Surgery had been consulted, and had already been in to see him once. I arrived at the ER around 2:45. The security guard was so kind and helpful. He found out which room my dad was in, and walked me back to see him. Within an hour of the CT being done, the PA in the ER came in to let us know they had found a big clot and he was contacting the Vascular Surgery team to let them know the results were back, as they were waiting on the CT results. This was around 4:30. Within 30 or so minutes, an MD from the vascular team was talking to us about an open thrombectomy and the likelihood of reperfusion injury, and the need for a fasciotomy and wound vac. She prepared us for a 1 week hospitalization. By 5:45, Dad was on his way to the OR. The doctor called me by 9 pm to let me know how the procedure went and that Dad would be going up to a room. He didn’t know what room, but said he would have the nurse call me. Around 1030 or 11, I had not heard from anyone, so I called the hospital operator. She transferred me to the surgical area. I spoke with the PACU nurse, who was extremely friendly and helpful. She gave me dad's room number, and the phone # to the unit. I called the unit, and the nurse was busy, whoever was answering phones took my info. His nurse called me back a bit later and updated me on how he was doing. She was so nice. Dad even commented on what an amazing nurse she was.

I returned to the hospital on Friday at 11am, and stayed at the bedside until he was discharged. Everyone was just so friendly and helpful. The nurse kept checking for his echo results, which took forever to get into the computer. PT/OT got their hands on a faxed copy of the results because they needed to make sure there were no clots around his heart before they got him up, and his discharge was pending the echo results and PT/OT, and believe me, he really wanted to go home. The doctor came in to see him and answered all of my questions. Pharmacy came up and explained all of his new meds. Case Management addressed the walker and home PT recommendation very quickly. A second member of the surgical team came in, explained very clear where the clot came from, and gave me his cell phone # to text if there were any issues after discharge. Once the discharge order was put in, we were out of there in no time.

The next day, Dad's new RX for Lipitor still was not at the pharmacy. I tried messaging the doctor (he had transposed a # when he wrote down his phone #, so it was wrong), and I called the answering service, who had no record the doctor. So I called the unit to see if they could help me reach the surgical service. Again, they were soooo helpful. A couple of them were working together to look up Dad’s providers and paged them to my cell phone #. She said if I did not hear back from them within 45 minutes, to call her back and let her know. I did hear back from the surgical team very quickly, but I was just so impressed in her willingness to follow up and make sure I got in contact with vascular.

From the time Dad walked in, until the time they wheeled him out to my car, every Nurse, tech, security guard, secretary, Doctor, transporter, radiology and ultrasound staff, nutrition staff, case manager and anyone else I may be forgetting, was friendly and helpful. We did not encounter a single rude or grumpy person, and received exceptional care from all staff involved. Please share this with the Nurse Manager in the ED and as many other departments as you can. I really want to make sure everyone gets recognized and share my heartfelt gratitude to everyone involved in my dad’s care. Thank you all for all that you do!