From left: Viletha Small Clarke, NP; Michelle Abraham, LCSW; Vishal Gupta, MD; Catherine Cadore, RN; and Nancy Bourque, LCSW
The snow was beginning to come down heavily one afternoon last winter, as the clinical care team at Mount Sinai Chelsea was preparing to discharge an elderly patient who, that morning, had undergone treatment requiring anesthesia. The woman called her family members and friends to come and bring her home, but the weather was getting worse and no one was able to help. Mount Sinai team members Vishal Gupta, MD, and Viletha Small Clarke, NP, stepped in to help her make phone calls—to no avail.
Social workers Nancy Bourque, LCSW, and Michelle Abraham, LCSW, called transportation companies and agencies that sometimes provide personnel who escort patients home, but they, too, were unable to help.
“The patient insisted that she could go home by herself,” says Catherine Cadore, RN, Clinical Nurse Manager. But that was not possible. “We thought, ‘what happens when she gets out of the car at the other end with the snow coming down? What if the walkway isn’t shoveled or she falls without anyone to assist her?’ We had to make a judgement call.”
Their decision was simple. Michelle and Nancy hailed a taxi and Catherine escorted the patient home to Harlem, after receiving approval from her supervisor and the care team. “Our team at Mount Sinai did what was best for the patient,” Catherine says. “Everyone understood that making sure the patient got home safely was our top priority.”