A couple of months ago, Kelli was seeing a patient for a pre-surgery work up and anesthesia interview for an elective procedure. That is when it came to her attention that the patient had a low platelet count. The patient had been moved up in the surgery schedule, which meant he was going to have the surgery sooner than expected.
As the Surgery Nurse Navigator, Kelli is the patient's advocate. She discussed her concerns over proceeding with pre-surgery lab work with one of the AdventHealth Hendersonville Physicians and they shared the recommendation to not proceed with the patient and his wife.
She notified the surgeon of this decision and through this patient advocacy process, they were able to postpone the surgery until the patient was in a more optimal health state.
Both the patient and his wife were very appreciative and expressed their sincere gratitude for Kelli and her willingness to speak up on their behalf.