This past July, an elderly gentleman, "Mr. T", brought his wife into the Emergency department and "Mrs. T" was subsequently admitted to the Jefferson Five nursing unit. Quickly she was put on contact precautions for isolation due to an acute problem that needed further diagnosing. Meanwhile, "Mr. T" was experiencing his own acute problem and he subsequently was admitted to Franklin 5 West. The two were unable to visit each other due to their own medical conditions, however Mr. T verbalized to the F5W staff how much he missed his wife and just wanted to talk to her and make sure that she was okay. He was very specifically concerned because the rest of their family was on vacation in Myrtle Beach.

This is where Eileen Florendo, RN began to collaborate with the primary Nurse for Mrs. T on the Jefferson Five Nursing Unit for the husband and wife to begin using the phone to communicate. Eileen had directed the primary RN of Mrs. T, to alert her when the isolation should no longer be needed. Within a day, the primary RN of Mrs. T notified Eileen that the isolation was discontinued. Immediately, Eileen collaborated with the J5 nurse, the primary Nurse of Mr. T, and Bed Management to transfer Mrs. T to Franklin 5 West into Mr. T's room. Eileen coordinated the transfer of Mr. T's roommate into another open male bed on the unit. Once the bed next to Mr. T was cleaned, Eileen retrieved a wheelchair and went to Jefferson Five to personally transfer Mrs. T to Franklin 5 West. The Team on F5W was very excited to witness the reunion. Eileen wheeled Mrs. T into Mr. T's room, and she couldn't get out of the wheelchair fast enough! Mr. T and Mrs. T walked right to each other and embraced. The team just stood there staring in awe!

Something so simple made such a difference in the life of Mr. and Mrs. T. Thank you to Eileen for your consistent and endless compassion to our patients.