Clinic Staff Pull Together During Family Emergency

The staff in Pod C of McCrary-Rost Clinic: Lake City were recently recognized for their outstanding teamwork. Clinic Receptionist Elyse Grote (fifth from left) submitted the nomination. Here's what she had to say:

"When Danni had received news at her daughter’s appt. and she had to leave for her care, the whole pod pulled together to help clear her schedule so she could be a mom first. Danni is an amazing provider and she also is an amazing mom. Cindy Carstens came up and with no questions asked said, "Let’s do what we can to free up her schedule so she can leave as soon as she can today, be off Tuesday and Wednesday." Lexi Badding saw patients for Danni, Providers picked up shifts to help (Dr. Hornback and Nancy Flink.) Nancy Flink and her nurses Darcy and Jennifer also took on some of Danni’s same-day patients for that day. Her nurses were there to support, she was still able to put her emotions to the side so she still could see a few more patients that day before leaving and be professional.  When making calls to reschedule appointments, Danni’s patients were all very understanding of her and wished well for her. I think that speaks very highly of how Danni’s compassionate care given to her patient’s and their understanding in a time like this allowed our facility to provide family-serving values.  We were all team-oriented and worked together as a whole."

SMCH CEO Cindy Carstens added, "On Monday, March 30, I received a call from Holly Wuebker asking that I come to Pod C as Danni had a situation that they needed help with. At that time, Danni shared with me that her daughter Brockelyn was ill and needed to have some further testing done and most likely be seen at a facility that could provide a higher level of care. As we discussed the situation, we determined that we needed to get Danni off so she could be with her daughter and not worry about work. The whole team in Pod C jumped in and started calling patients and rescheduling them to either be seen by Lexie, Nancy or other providers. Brooke Uhlenkamp and Amy worked with Nancy to cover an extra day at Lake City freeing Danni to be off until Friday. Dr. Hornback stepped in and picked up full ED coverage that evening and Brooke contacted Dr. Burns to cover a shift so Dr. Hornback did not need to cover two days of night ED/OB by herself. Not only did Pod C come together, but our ultrasound tech Joni stayed to perform Brockelyn’s ultrasound that was needed to determine next steps in her plan of care. As I worked with the team from Pod C, I could see the compassion and sincere concern that they all had for one of our team mates. This is another example of the “SMCH Family” coming together to assist. I am so proud to say I work at an organization where we are all family and anyone in the organization would do what needed to be done for one of our teammates."