Our Case Management caregivers are experts at coming up with creative solutions to help our patients when they’re in need. Recently, they came in contact with a man who had MS as well as COVID-19. He had been discharged from the hospital and was staying at a hotel with his coworkers, who also had contracted COVID. The man wasn’t doing well so his coworkers brought him back to the Emergency Department the next day. His wife was in Albuquerque, also COVID positive with MS, beside herself that she wasn’t there to help. That’s when Social Worker Shannon Hawthorne stepped in.
“‘Let me work on this,’ I told her,” Shannon said. “Case Management has got this.”
The patient didn’t meet the criteria to be admitted, but Shannon knew he needed extra help. After some brainstorming she contacted a local nursing facility, made some more calls to get insurance authorization, and working together with the nursing home administrator, was able to arrange a bed for the patient at the facility.
The patient’s wife had been about to take a cab from Albuquerque so she could be with her husband. She was relieved when Shannon told her they’d found a place for him and said that Shannon was a lifesaver.
“I’m glad I could help her and her husband,” Shannon said. “You have to get really creative when working in the ER. It’s a passion, and you have to have that passion.”
“Shannon has an endless amount of energy and enthusiasm to do what she does every day; she's an awesome team member!” Case Management Director Ginger Fosnot added.