In home health care most of the stories people hear are about the wonderful care the in home aides give to their clients. What most people don’t hear about is what goes on behind the scenes in the busy offices. Here in the Burlington NC office our busy staff from Carmen (recruitment/compliance) to Lynn (staffing/payroll) to Melissa (RN) to our leader Brenda (OA) we all know that it only takes one small gesture of kindness to make a huge difference in someone’s life and I would like to tell you just one of our most recent stories.
We were asked to take on a client, Ms. Scott, who was very reluctant to have services provided for her as she is a very independent and private person. We knew we had the perfect aide for her and in fact that same aide has now been with her a little over a year now. Within that time frame we as a team have gained her trust and we find her calling us for a simple word of advice or just reassurance that everything will be okay. It was one of these phone calls that prompted Brenda to go out and visit our little “worry wart” - a nickname she has given herself.
It only took that one visit to Ms. Scott's home for Brenda to see in person this tiny women trying to maneuver an overly large walker that had been given to her by her local church. Brenda could see that this walker was more of a hindrance than it was helpful due to its size. Brenda knew right away that she needed to do something to help this women become more mobile as the lack of exercise had also caused additional health problems for her.
When Brenda came back from her visit she started making phone calls immediately to physicians’ offices, medical supply companies, and just about anyone she could think of that may be able to help. Finally she had spoken with Clovers Medical supply and they believed they indeed could help. Once Brenda heard that they may have a walker that would be a fit for our client she rushed right out to see and indeed they had the perfect walker she had been searching for.
Brenda then came back into the office and once again immediately got on the phone and proceeded to call the patient's case worker to see what needed to be done to make this happen, and with just a few more phone calls and a prescription later Brenda had completed what she set out to do.
The next day Brenda was able to pick up the walker and deliver it herself. Oh how the rest of us wish we could have gone with her to see our clients excitement. It didn’t take long though for our “worry wart” to call our office in tears to thank everyone and to let us know that she believes that that walker was made just for her as it is a perfect match for her size.
Our patient has now gone from barley being able to get around her own home to being up and motivated every single day or as she likes to refer to it as “scooting around the place”. She delighted her doctors and nurses who once had to help escort her down the halls for her appointments to showing up for them and telling the nurses to “get out of my way and watch me go!"
-Burlington Office
