A middle-aged woman came to LAMC's Urgent Care for what she intended as a routine prescription refill. She went through the check in process and was screened timely. What one would think a normal, quick visit was still quick, but anything but normal. During screening, Charito noted that the patient had upper back and some chest pains. Charito immediately completed an EKG, which showed as classic ST elevation in multiple leads. The charge nurse noted that Charito's "assessment was excellent; MD saw the patient and the patient was transferred to the nearest STEMI hospital in minutes. She was able to save a life and I am proud to have her as a part of my urgent care team!".
UC's Department Administrator, Christopher Tan, wants to let Charito know what an amazing job she did for this patient. He would also like to thank her for serving each day with this type of dedication to detail and advocacy. He moves on to say that Charito truly gives her best to every patient, every time.
This example is part of the reason why LAMC's Urgent Care celebrated their recent progress with workflow efficiency for the month of April. Christopher Tan claims, nurses like Charito are the experts and the face of Kaiser Permanente; the sooner the members are in nurses' care to be screened, the sooner we can attend to their needs or even save their life. Charito's patient did not have time to wait as they say for these emergencies, "time is tissue".
Great job, Charito!