A patient was discharged late on a Friday afternoon, after being in the hospital for 90 days. He was a newly diagnosed diabetic and no teaching had been done nor had any supplies been secured for him. He was transferred to our floor after having a stroke while in the hospital and had only been a patient on our floor for a couple of days. He did not have insurance. He needed home equipment as well as a new prescription for Coumadin.
Delores collaborated with Jessica, the Charge Nurse. While Delores did diabetic teaching on how to check his blood sugar and administer insulin, Jessica quickly reached out to the social services manager and was able to get the hospital to pay for his insulin and provide a home health visit.
Delores acquired a walker for the gentleman. She also arranged for the man to follow up at the health department to have his PT/INR checked. Meanwhile, Jessica took the scripts to the pharmacy herself and waited to have them filled and Delores paid for them out of her own pocket.
Thanks to the quick thinking and actions of these two nurses, this patient was able to go home with everything he needed to take care of himself and the understanding of how to do it as well as the resources he needed for continued care as an outpatient. They truly went above and beyond.