I would like to commend Naomi Everett, one of our wound center nurses. Naomi has always been an extremely strong and talented nurse here at the center. She works tirelessly to ensure that patient satisfaction, quality and safety is being pursued at the center. We currently have a patient, a 51 year old male who has fairly advanced lower extremity lymphedema with many scattered and open draining wounds. He is homeless; he works the night shift at a gas station and sleeps in his car. He was seeing us twice a week, but he found his copays too high, no longer has a car and had to cancel his appointments with us. Naomi told me that she wanted to do something to help this unfortunate individual. First, she worked with the director to get properly fitting closed surgical shoes through the hospital so he could protect his feet. In addition, she was driving last weekend in Frederick and noticed a Veteran's Affairs office on Buckeystown Pike. She went inside and described our patient's situation to the VA office staff, and the VA staff told her that there was a lot they could offer him, through Platoon Veteran Services. Naomi collected all of their information and contacted the patient, who was very grateful for her efforts. He is now linked with Platoon 22 and hopefully will be able to improve the quality of his life and he is now scheduled to see us again regularly.

I have always been very impressed with Naomi's leadership and nursing skills, but I think her recent efforts were above and beyond.