My patient had a discharge home order and patient was really looking forward to going home today. Case Management was working on setting up a ride home and her prescriptions were sent down to Walgreens to be filled. Walgreens came up to patient's room around lunch time and told her that her copay for the meds would be $21.73 but patient didn't have the money. Patient stated that maybe her roommate could help her out but not until the next day at the earliest. Patient was informed of meds and that there were a couple of new ones that she could not go home without. In speaking with the social worker on the floor, who stated that the hospital could not cover the copay, but she could submit a request to see if the hospital could cover the meds entirely, which would be much more expensive.
Gladys was there for the conversation and asked which patient it was. I told her the name and she stated that she was pretty sure that she knew this patient from a previous admission and knew that the patient has been in the hospital several times and was really looking forward to going home. Without asking any other questions, or going to the room to talk to the patient about her financial situation, Gladys grabbed her wallet off her desk and handed the money to the Walgreens rep and ran off to another meeting.
When I told the patient what happened, the patient began to cry and stated this is why she loves Sunrise Hospital. She said the people who work here are so kind and caring at all times. She stated, "praise the Lord. He really does answer prayers." She began to tell me of everything that she had been through with her health and being in and out of hospitals recently and continued on about how grateful she was for this person to pay for her meds without even knowing her. This is why I am nominating Gladys for this situation and many others like it.