My grandmother came in by ambulance on a Sunday night after a fall. She is 90 years old and lived alone with assistance but was in need of more full-time care. Tammy quickly identified that she was dehydrated and septic, and started IVs and hooked her up to a monitor immediately. Tammy explained everything to me and my mother as she cared for my grandmother. I couldn't ask for a better nurse to care for her. Tammy was full of warmth and compassion and was very conscious to protect my grandmother's privacy and modesty. She would ask me to step out when she was doing some invasive procedures a grandson wouldn't want to see. After my grandmother was worked up, it was determined that she should be admitted.
Tammy and I also discussed the need for nursing home placement after discharge from the hospital. A critically unstable patient arrived in the Emergency Department so my grandmother's provider was unable to finish the charting and put in the admission order. Tammy continued to monitor the situation and advocated for my grandmother. She had the provider put in the order when he was finally available. Tammy called bed control to fast track the bed placement which happened quickly. The next event was to call report to the receiving floor but they said they couldn't take report and would have to call back. Tammy gave them 10 minutes and called back to give report. Tammy then transported my grandmother to the floor just before midnight. My grandmother was discharged on Wednesday afternoon. If Tammy wasn't advocating for my grandmother, she would not have qualified for nursing home care paid by CMS. Our family would have had to pay $450 a day out of our pocket for my grandmother's nursing home stay. I appreciate Tammy taking such wonderful care of my grandmother and also being her advocate.