Recently, Stephanie bravely and astutely identified and responded to a situation that was unfolding in real-time. Stephanie was assessing her patient when she noted suspicions of abuse by the patient’s husband. Once she received confirmation from the patient that she did not feel safe in the home, she acted swiftly and discreetly. Stephanie was able to think quickly to safely escalate the patient's level of care and utilize this to get her transported out of her home. Stephanie was able to accomplish this in a professional manner that did not raise concern or escalate the situation. Stephanie remained with the patient the whole time and provided emotional and physical support. This intervention led to the patient receiving a social work consult and the resources she needs in order to protect her from having to return to an abusive home. Stephanie’s actions were courageous. She tapped into her intuition, knowledge, and critical thinking to keep this patient safe.

The doctor shared this message with the Home Hospital team, "I wanted to alert the team to a patient escalation this morning. On the RN visit this AM, Stephanie noticed the patient crying with her husband hovering over her. Stephanie was made aware by the patient at this time that she is going through a difficult divorce and no longer feels safe at home- there is a history of violence that was not mentioned by her in initial screening for Home Hospital. The decision was immediately made to escapate the patient back. Emergency services arrived within 1 hour, and the patient was transported to the hospital. The husband was told that the patient required "more testing." Prior to arrival at the hospital, security, social work, and case management were alerted. On arrival, Stephanie and I evaluated the patient, and the patient explained her husband’s abusive history in depth and stated that she did not want him to have visitation rights. Security updated the visitor list, and the patient’s chart was converted to confidential and locked. The patient will complete hospitalization in brick-and-mortar with close social work follow-up."

The doctor also stated, “I wanted to shed light on the phenomenal job done by Stephanie to immediately realize an unsafe situation and escalate the situation in an incredibly professional and confidential fashion while respecting the wishes of the patient. The patient expressed her gratitude for the phenomenal care and attention she received while under Stephanie's care, which is truly reflective of her bedside skills.”