Erin recently had the opportunity to care for a teenage patient with a diagnosis of fetal alcohol syndrome. The patient was adopted from another country and currently goes to boarding school in another state. This patient was seeing Pediatric Neurology because she had very rounded shoulders and muscle weakness in her arms. The weakness was most recently progressing to her legs. After his initial assessment, Dr. B suspected it was a certain form of muscular dystrophy which he later confirmed from his work up. The family was devastated by the diagnosis. The patient was recommended to a specialist at VCU to discuss the diagnosis. The patient goes to a boarding school in another state and the parents wanted her to be seen before she went to school the following week. Unfortunately, the earliest appointment was months away. Erin called and spoke with the office coordinator and explained the situation. She even put Dr. B in touch with the VCU provider directly. Erin was able to get the patient in to see VCU that same week. Furthermore, she got the patient set up with intensive physical therapy in a location near her school. In addition, Erin coordinated with the school to help them understand what she would need at school to accommodation her new diagnosis. She assisted the patient's father when he came by the clinic a few times without an appointment to have forms and paperwork completed and signed. Erin always made sure to meet with him and complete the paperwork while he was there since everything was so time sensitive to her going away to school. Erin even coordinated all of her follow up appointments with Bon Secours and VCU to correlate with her school breaks.
Erin demonstrated compassion, quality, and respect for this patient and her family. She worked diligently to coordinate care across two health systems and two states in an effort to ease this family's burden with this new and devastating diagnosis. Erin's hard work will allow the patient to maintain some normalcy and not have to give up her schooling due to her medical condition. Her efforts also put this patient's parents at ease knowing that their daughter has the physical therapy resources that she needs at school and the medical support she needs at home. Erin's hard work and thoughtfulness ensured that this patient was provided with the seamless comprehensive care that she deserves.