Kate is the primary heart transplant coordinator for a patient, LT. LT received a heart transplant earlier this year, and Kate has taken him under her wing and provides him amazing post-transplant care. LT is a resident of New Mexico and insured with New Mexico Medicaid & Indian Health Services. He is moderately to severely delayed in health literacy and understanding and displays some self-care deficits when it comes to medication management and understanding and following the strict post-transplant protocols.
In his case, LT can only get his transplant medications from pharmacies in New Mexico, and then only from the Indian reservation pharmacies. This type of insurance does not allow him to fill any medication here at the Atrium or any local pharmacy. This has of course proven challenging for him, since he is staying locally, and cannot afford to drive up and down every week to get medications (the pharmacy also will only fill one-week supplies since the medications are so expensive).
Kate has taken a remarkable initiative by taking it upon herself to call his pharmacy every week to update them about current prescriptions and generate refills for that week. She then coordinates with his sister, who lives in New Mexico, to have the medications shipped up here overnight. Kate has arranged for LT to come into the Transplant Clinic every week following his hospital discharge so she can fill his pillboxes and provide ongoing education to help him become more self-sufficient. She also spends time reinforcing concepts of transplant rejection and infection prevention and the plethora of post-transplant education that patients receive.
Kate has not let her busy schedule and the demands of her role keep her from giving exceptional care to LT. She will call and check on him during the week, apart from the weekly visits, and has created a trusting rapport with both him and his sister. She is dedicated to his progress and his success post-transplant.
It has been personally amazing for us to watch her go this extra mile for him. This is just the type of nurse Kate is: caring, dedicated, authentic, compassionate and humble.
We feel she deserves recognition, not only for this care given specifically to LT but to all her patients.