Rhonda Crafton, MSN, RN

Rhonda coordinates our high-risk OB Clinic. We have a patient who is pregnant and needs chemo during the pregnancy. The patient speaks a rare dialect and needs an interpreter set up in advance as well. The language barrier has been an issue in the past, contributing to her worsening condition with a tumor on her neck. The patient also lives about 1.5 hours away.

Our MD team let us know that the patient needed to start chemo on a Wednesday, but our high-risk OB clinic is on Tuesdays. Our MD team isn't here on Wednesdays, so they were trying to work out a complicated plan to have someone run down and see the patient in between other duties. It wasn't going to be ideal for the patient and would have been an exhausting day for her.

Rhonda had an idea to get the patient the care she needed with our high-risk OB clinic while also getting her chemo. Rhonda went to social work with a suggestion to try setting up the patient for an overnight stay so that she could be seen in high-risk OB on Tuesday and return on Wednesday for chemo without making the long drive two days in a row. This would also allow plenty of time to arrange interpreter services for both appointments.

Rhonda and social work were successful in getting the resources for this patient and setting this up. The patient will now be seen in the appropriate clinics on a timeline that works best for her. She will have the interpreter set up so that she fully understands this complicated scenario she is in during her pregnancy.

Rhonda was innovative and went above and beyond to provide the best experience for this patient! She is so valuable to our clinic.