I have had the pleasure of working with Jodi for nearly one year in my role as medical director for Optum Acute Care at Home--our hospital-level care at-home program, in which she works as a virtual nurse. Jodi joined the program at launch and has proven herself to be a highly motivated, engaged, and driven virtual nurse. She places patient care at the forefront of everything she does and works tirelessly to improve the workflow for her and her counterparts in this new program. She has built innovative new protocols to help deliver care in this virtual model, such as devising a solution for hearing-impaired patients utilizing Microsoft Word's dictate function to display real-time voice-to-text for patients to read. Jodi has proven highly resilient as a core member of the virtual care team, providing thoughtful feedback and nursing insight while helping the program grow through challenging staffing and start-up-like challenges. She is looked up to by her peers and is a consistent source of virtual nursing expertise for her colleagues.

Jodi shows daily accountability to patient safety by reporting patient safety and quality concerns in our internal program reporting log (Performance Improvement Log, with our partner company for this work, Medically Home) as well as RLDatix. She brings an open mindset to patient care and avoids assumptions; this is proven in her delivery of care in a new model of care (virtual hospital-level care at home), in which patients are cared for in their home environment and all that comes with this, such as challenges with the physical environment (e.g., hoarding behaviors or accessibility issues). She works to meet patients where they are ready and able to receive care. She consistently follows through in her day-to-day care responsibilities with clear, effective communication with the physicians and clinical in-home nursing partners. She has engaged in building program compliance and promoting safe practices by calling out gaps in policy, for example highlighting a lack of care protocol for patients with insulin pumps leading to the development of such a protocol to improve patient care moving forward.

Jodi works to get to know the person, not just the "problem." She invests her time to provide warm, professional patient care that promotes optimal health outcomes. She has taken the initiative to improve the processes in the virtual nurse workflow, such as providing input on timing and structure for interdisciplinary daily patient rounds. When she identifies problems or barriers in her work, she seeks solutions or innovations to embed process and structure to deliver safe, quality patient care, rather than ignoring problems or letting errors go unchecked. She has undoubtedly improved the quality of care and outcomes not only for the patients she has directly cared for, but others served by the Acute Care at Home program through her engagement and participation in improvement work.

Outlined above are several examples where Jodi's advocacy for safety and patient care has led to actionable changes, such as the development of an insulin pump protocol or job aid for communicating with hearing-impaired patients when using a video-visit platform. She has also spoken up about having a Bluetooth speaker delivered to a patient in the Acute Care at Home program to allow for improved audio experience and communication with the care team. Such actions demonstrate her commitment to being present and support for optimal outcomes for her patients and teammates.

Jodi is reserved but speaks up for safety, patients, and the team. She is approachable, a collaborator, and provides care with grace and compassion. I would trust Jodi with my care any time.