Going the Extra Mile to Help a Patient in Need

Division of Infectious Diseases & International Health
CLINICAL NEWS: Going the Extra Mile to Help a Patient in Need at the Ryan White Clinic 

Melissa Gibson, MSW, who oversees medical case managers working in the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Clinic in the Division of Infectious Diseases, recently observed —and then took time to send a commendatory email about — the extraordinary efforts of staff members in assisting a needy patient visiting the Ryan White clinic.

Melissa describes the circumstances: “We had an 83-year-old patient come to the clinic in the afternoon; his blood pressure was very high, so his provider, Kathryn Dort, FNP, kept him there for observation for several hours. Since the patient lived in Danville, Virginia [about 2-1/2 hours south of Charlottesville], Kathryn felt he could benefit from a blood pressure monitor designed for home use. But the device cost $60, and the patient couldn’t afford it.”

That’s when the staff swung into action. First, clinic coordinator Pam Bickley called the CVS store at Barracks Road Shopping Center and talked them into donating the device to the patient. Veronica Ross, one of the clinic’s medical case managers, went to Barracks Road to pick it up. Then Morgan Blevins, who is a UVA Medical Center patient access specialist in ID’s Traveler’s Clinic, helped get the donated device operational — and made sure the patient could use it, despite his not being able to read. “It was the end of the day, but Morgan took time to read through the manual and set it up for the patient so he could use it at home without referring to written instructions.” Morgan also helped coordinate the patient’s follow-up appointments, and saw to it that he had the travel support he needed.

Tracy Ivery, a registered medical assistant also working in the Traveler’s Clinic, stayed on past her normal working hours “to wheel the patient to the lab for his regular HIV draws, stay with him, and get him back up to the clinic afterwards,” says Melissa. Tracy then helped get the “patient, his new blood pressure cuff, and a case of Ensure nutritional supplements into his cab for the long trip home.”

Bush Bell, the recently appointed patient experience officer for UVA Health System, observed that “this is a great example of a team really putting the patient at the center of what they are doing, and caring for someone who could easily have fallen through the cracks. They all went above and beyond to do what was right for the patient.”

Jim McGowan, division administrator for Infectious Diseases, agreed, and added: “The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Clinic has a long tradition of providing high-quality care to the citizens of Virginia and surrounding states; it’s a tremendous asset, not only to our community but to the Division as well. Like the patient in this case, many people travel far distances to be treated there — not just because of the expertise of our care providers, but for the compassionate way in which they are treated by all of the RWC staff members.”