Maria Arevalo Monges
May 2021
Maria
Arevalo Monges
,
BSN, BSPA, RN, ACM
Case Management
Loma Linda University Medical Center East Campus
Loma Linda
,
CA
United States
Patients, families, and staff feel heard and supported by Maria even when they do not get the answers that they desire.
Our COVID epidemic has created unique challenges across our campus including increased difficulty finding long-term solutions for patient placement. At East Campus, we have a long history of finding solutions for placement of some of the most complex patients with multi-system organ failure. Over the past 10 years, we have had excellent case managers who have worked with families and staff to help complex patients navigate their way to long-term placement solutions. However, our current Nurse Case Manager, Maria Arevalo Monges, far exceeds the compassion, dedication, and ingenuity that I have seen. Patients, families, and staff feel heard and supported by Maria even when they do not get the answers that they desire. They know that regardless of the barriers in medicine, Maria is their advocate.
Maria communicates daily with family members updating them of new insurance issues, limitations in bed availability, and downturns in patient health. Through her ingenuity, problem-solving ability, and relationships with individuals at various facilities and hospice agencies, Maria has been able to transfer multiple hospice patients home on the ventilator during COVID where they could have terminal extubation surrounded by their family members. Maria has even been able to get a chronic ventilator patient home on hospice with a long-term ventilator. When one hospice agency delayed transfer home on hospice during COVID because of a lack of ventilators, I overheard Maria expressing her frustration to the company with their lack of anticipatory planning during such a fragile moment for the family. Maria’s most recent accomplishment was to transfer a patient during COVID across state lines to a facility that the family desperately wanted. Maria worked daily for weeks establishing rapport with the family, designing a plan for the family, transitioning the patient’s insurance, setting up air flight travel, and finding an accepting facility in another state where the family is living long-term. Thank you for your dedication and commitment to our patients and their families especially during COVID.
Maria communicates daily with family members updating them of new insurance issues, limitations in bed availability, and downturns in patient health. Through her ingenuity, problem-solving ability, and relationships with individuals at various facilities and hospice agencies, Maria has been able to transfer multiple hospice patients home on the ventilator during COVID where they could have terminal extubation surrounded by their family members. Maria has even been able to get a chronic ventilator patient home on hospice with a long-term ventilator. When one hospice agency delayed transfer home on hospice during COVID because of a lack of ventilators, I overheard Maria expressing her frustration to the company with their lack of anticipatory planning during such a fragile moment for the family. Maria’s most recent accomplishment was to transfer a patient during COVID across state lines to a facility that the family desperately wanted. Maria worked daily for weeks establishing rapport with the family, designing a plan for the family, transitioning the patient’s insurance, setting up air flight travel, and finding an accepting facility in another state where the family is living long-term. Thank you for your dedication and commitment to our patients and their families especially during COVID.