Lisa's role as the RN Coordinator entails working with our most medically complex clients and assisting our care managers in providing the right level of care needed to improve both psycho-social and physical conditions. Lisa does this very well on a consistent basis: provide compassion, persistence and dedication to our clients.
We were assigned a client who suffers from multiple conditions including: Chiari Malformation, Addison Disease, Diabetes, Gastroparesis, Depression, and Anxiety; on long-term anticoagulant use, has a G-tube and J-tube requiring dressing changes. Though we are not treatment providers, we were asked to manage her care as home care was no longer an option for her despite physician's recommendations.
Our client is young, intelligent and highly motivated, but she is also in chronic pain and tires easily, and she is not as strong as she always "appears". Due to lack of understanding and misrepresentation, providers had labeled the client as non-compliant, med-seeking, and the cause of her own infections. Lisa took the time to better understand our client's needs and recognize her strengths to best advocate for her.
With home care no longer available, the client was devastated and concerned how she was going to manage her health care needs alone and still have the energy to serve in her other meaningful roles: Mother to two young daughters and a wife. Realizing the strain of losing her in-home support was having a negative impact on the whole family, Lisa coordinated weekly home lab draws, combined the various pharmacies the client was using into one, arranged for organized deliveries of medication and medical supplies, accompanied the client to the 7 different provider appointments, and was able to collate all of the information to better advocate for this client's needs. In doing so, she was able to enlist a home care agency willing to take on the client's case and negotiate a rate with the insurance company. This young woman was given a prognosis of 3 years to live…over 5 years ago! She now is truly trying to live and provide as normal a life she can for her daughters.
Lisa has worked closely with the care manager assigned to this case, and they have served as a constant positive force in helping the client and the family through various crisis situations. They have brought the inpatient/outpatient providers to the table so all are on the same page in providing care and cease the previous patient-labeling that formerly impacted her access to services.