A patient was admitted for an elective tracheostomy after becoming vent dependent. MD had planned, with patient & family, for a 5-day IP stay. However, home situation was not as had been portrayed pre-operatively, and the discharge planning was more complicated than initially anticipated and was going to require more time to put together a comprehensive and safe discharge plan. The patient and family were very resistant to staying any extra days. Sonja Orff and the SCU4 staff were able to determine that the patient wanted to get home because a concert had been planned for him in his home with the Maine "Rustic Overtones". Through coordinated efforts, Sonja and staff were able to arrange for the venue to be changed from the patient's home to the Dana Center, and SCU4 was able to find an RN to transport this ventilator dependent patient to the concert, despite the fact that he had been transferred to an R4 AVU bed in the interim.

If Sonja and the SCU4 staff had not intervened, this patient would likely have signed himself out AMA thereby seriously jeopardizing his health because I could not coordinate a safe discharge until after the concert date. Not only was the patient able to attend his concert, he was also happy to remain an in-patient while services and supplies are arranged.

Because Sonja Orff and the SCU4 staff were able to think outside of the box, and are willing to provide nursing coverage for the concert, a win/win situation was created.