We recently had a patient from Poland. The patient had no family here in the states and very little support, she was also unfunded and newly diagnosed with a terminal illness. The patient was with us for over 40 days. From what I knew, Mary Ledebuhr spent a lot of time on this case every day, making calls to get funding for this patient. She worked with other departments on campus for days and days including the cancer center and OPIC to arrange for weeks of treatment even after the patient left. She set up every single ride necessary, and when something didn't work out, she went even further working the Superior Ambulance service. Mary worked with the American Cancer society closely, so the patient could receive the necessary care. She made extra calls to pharmacies to find out the best cost and figured out how to get the meds to the patient. Mary coordinated the most difficult discharge I have ever seen in my ten years of working here and without her this patient would not get any treatment at all. There was also a language barrier with the patient and Mary and the staff always made sure we were translating with appropriate staff and using our resources we have including the language lines and the tele comm prompt machine that has a live person on the other end. I feel very fortunate to have someone like Mary working with us.
The staff nurse yesterday that was discharging this patient knew exactly what to do because of all the notes from Mary, saying to me, "Read Mary's note, it's incredible. I know exactly what to do, she has thought of everything!" Mary always tells us we can call her when she is off with questions; yesterday I called her to just thank her for making the discharge so clear. The patient left around 4 PM yesterday and she is hoping to get back to Poland with her family in a couple weeks. Again, we really appreciate Mary and her dedication to her patients, she deserves to be recognized for extraordinary care and coordination.