One of our Chicago Care Coordination Unit clients under the Home Delivered Meals (HDM) service, called our team in tears because she was receiving only frozen meals from the HDM service, her refrigerator broke down and all of her food had spoiled. She told the team that she hadn’t eaten in 2 days.
Without a moment of hesitation, our team HDM Specialist began the process to have her meals changed from frozen to fresh but with all the affected seniors in our area, the service team didn’t have an estimated time frame for when this change would happen.
The team immediately followed up to ask for a list of items that she needed – gathering a grocery list of non-perishable items that would hold her over until her new refrigerator arrived on Thursday and her new fresh food delivery service began. The gesture brought our member to tears again, this time tears of joy asking, “you’d do that for me?” The answer to her and all our members is and always will be, “Absolutely!”
As
items were discussed for her grocery needs, our team discovered that the member
was diagnosed with Scoliosis and her arthritis is so bad that she cannot open
cans of soup. She also reported that she has no family or friends nearby,
simply one generous neighbor who bought her a new refrigerator. The member was assured that Premier is
her extended family and we would do whatever possible to get her through this.
Additionally,
our CCU Assistant Director spoke to the member about the opportunity to receive
CCP services in her home right away to help her with things around her home. A phone
assessment was immediately set up for her to get homemaker services in place. The
member had stated that she wasn’t even aware that she could qualify for that
kind of help.
After a few back-and-forth phone calls, the CCU team was able to completely organize a full circle solution for our member in under an hour.
Through support from the IDOA senior grant, the team was able to have her favorite Subway foot long sandwich delivered to her home within an hour of the initial call as well as a 6 inch sandwich as a “just in case” sandwich for tomorrow. They also set up a grocery delivery within 48hrs and the HDM Specialist was successful in changing her meals through “Open Kitchen” from frozen to daily hot beginning the following day! And lastly, a case manager was scheduled to do her telephonic interim assessment the following day to ensure support services could start within 48 hours.
There were many happy tears shed not only by a very grateful member but many amazing and supportive staff who were so excited that we made this happen as quickly as we did.
