Melissa's devotion to following through for an elderly patient in the ED was inspiring and heartwarming. It was an extremely busy day in the ED and Melissa had a case management patient who was reluctantly going to SNF. The patient did not want to go because he was the caregiver for his wife who has dementia. After the family arrange for care at home for the spouse, the patient finally agreed to go to SNF. During the course of his stay in the ED, the patient made it know that his cell phone was important because his wife liked to call him on it. After EMS left, Melissa noticed that the patient's phone was left behind and reached out to EMS to come back and get it since they were not far from the hospital due to having just picked up the patient. EMS informed her that the patient had his cell phone and would not return. Melissa would not let this go and checked the abandoned phone and confirmed that it was the patient's.

Due to knowing the importance of what this would mean for the patient to have his phone, Melissa drove it to the Center at Northridge after her crazy and chaotic shift to ensure the patient would be able to hear from his wife. Melissa arranged with the staff at SNF to wait for her and they too stayed late to make sure that the phone was delivered. I want to emphasize that this was one of those busy days when people are frazzled at the end of their shift. She does not live anywhere close to the area of the SNF. Thank you Melissa for your compassion and concern for this patient.