In preparation for the transformation of an inpatient rehabilitation unit into a COVID-19 unit, patients needed to be discharged early. Therefore we needed to manage post-discharge needs, such as medication delivery services. Kevin Frison, MD, Department of Rehabilitation and Human Performance at The Mount Sinai Hospital, discharged a spinal cord injury patient home on a Thursday.
Because the weekend was approaching, he contacted the patient’s pharmacy prior to discharge to ensure that her medications would be delivered. Initially, the pharmacy said they couldn’t deliver her prescription because the driver was not available. But because the patient lived only a few blocks away from the pharmacy, Dr. Frison arranged for the pharmacy to do a walkover delivery as soon as the patient got home that evening and contacted them. The next day during morning sign-out, Dr. Frison learned that his patient had not received her medication. He contacted the pharmacy and was told that the delivery wasn’t made because they had decided to close early. Dr. Frison asked if they could deliver that day, and once again, they said no. He called the patient to see if there were any other pharmacies that she might use instead. He found their numbers and called all of them, to no avail, for delivery that day.
Dr. Frison did not want his patient to go another day—or the entire weekend—without her medication. So he decided to deliver it himself. He drove to the original pharmacy to pick up the package and then went to the patient’s apartment.
Her words made it all worthwhile. “Not only are you a great doctor, but you are an excellent human being,” she said. “Tell your mother she did an amazing job raising such a fine son.” Dr. Frison shared with her that his parents were ill in the hospital a few times, which deeply impacted him. As a result, he treats every patient as if they were his mother or father, because that’s how he would want his parent’s doctors to treat them.
Submitted by: Jacalyn Filler, LCSW, Department of Social Work Services, The Mount Sinai Hospital