While Nurse Heidimarie (Heidi) Chung exemplifies all 5 of the I CARE principles and demonstrates Integrity and Respect in her daily patient care, I want to directly comment on her Commitment, Advocacy and Excellence. I can appreciate these principles as I have been a nurse myself for 40 years. In addition to all the issues with direct patient care, a VA nurse must be knowledgeable of a collection of rules and regulations and the interplay between the VA system and private care to which patients are referred.

Heidi has aided me in finding care for me, and then dealing with the aftermath of billing and follow-up care. One example was when I had to go the emergency room as I was urinating frank blood. The episode led to surgery and several errors in billing complicated in part by COVID. Heidi untied the knots. Below is an appreciation I wrote to show how thankful I was for similar service in putting together the various disconnects with a Colonoscopy I recently had. I will never forget the difference her care has meant:

“Dear Dr. G, I had a Colonoscopy with Biopsy/Polypectomy in May. Until shortly before the procedure, there were complicating issues that may have canceled the event. The prescription for the prep solution had been lost as it was sent to Tripler Hospital by Dr. Dodd’s office instead of the VA pharmacy. Heidi discovered the problem and had a proper prescription redirected. There had been a change in Beneficiary Travel authorizations so that only the post anesthesia trip could be authorized. As VTS could not support the trip, Heidi had to find an alternative authorization through a LEAF request. Interestingly the usual method of authorizing alternative travel was not functional, and the office had to string together a three-way system so that I could travel by Uber.

"Heidi analyzed all the problems and found a solution for each issue. What amazed me, at each juncture, was the uniformity of comments by the personnel I worked with on the other end. In all cases there was but thankfulness for how easy Heidi was to work with and how efficient she was. Please add my admiration to those mentioned above."

Thank you, Heidi!