Rebecca Kalish and I walked back into our department after lunch to find an irate patient in her office. He as upset because his bed-bound child's bed was broken and needed to be fixed. If this could not be done, the child would have to be admitted to Madigan. Rebecca was able to de-escalate the situation as she worked with United Healthcare, Hill-Rom, and the technician. Not only was she able to get the codes needed to approve a technician to come out and fix the bed, but because of her diligent efforts, the technician came out the same day in the evening to fix the broken bed and prevented the child from being admitted to the hospital.
Another time, a hospice patient was being sent home from Madigan for her final days. Initially, UHC was denying the ambulance transfer. Rebecca worked on this referral for several days (calling the VA, UHC and the ambulance company) to get the ambulance transport covered so the family would not get a bill after losing their family member. After almost a week of working on this,she was able to get the ambulance ride covered through UHC!
There are so many instances of her dedication to patients. She consistently is someone that patient's family and staff can rely on to not only get the job done but will also exhaust every potential resource to ensure Madigan's patients get taken care of.