As the clinical supervisor, Lisa helps oversee all triaging activities. Last month, she worked diligently to obtain necessary supplies for a patient with a colostomy bag when the specialist stopped prescribing, and the patient would have been out over the weekend.

Regarding this particular patient, Lisa has been overseeing his care for the last year. The patient's son passed away about a year ago, and the patient has since been struggling to cope. Not only has the patient reported depression, but the patient was consuming large amounts of alcohol to numb himself. Lisa helped the clinicians and nurses coach him to video appointments and later in-person appointments. Once, she herself escorted him over to Stone Springs ED in a wheelchair as his condition from months of alcohol abuse was extensive.

On Wednesday, this patient called the office, inquiring about an appointment for his adult daughter, as she was coming to visit and seemed depressed. Overhearing the conversation Lisa had with the patient, it sounded as though the patient was sober but was concerned not only about his daughter but also about how he would handle her grief regarding her brother's passing. Lisa talked him through "meeting [the daughter] where she was" in her grief, not being afraid of the emotions that would come up, including not being afraid to cry in front of his daughter. For an older man dealing with so much of his own grief, he seemed very afraid, but with Lisa's help, he seemed stronger, not being afraid of being uncomfortable with the emotional pain. Lisa ended the call by telling the patient to give us a call back if he needed us, but that if his daughter seemed suicidal, to invite her to go to the ED with him, just as Lisa had done for him months prior.

While Lisa sees her actions as just "part of the job," I know how much she gives of herself, making this patient and all of our patients feel important, loved, and needed. In this day and age, that is extremely important and something everyone does not always do.