Every day before Wendy Higgs comes to work at the North Sevier Medical Clinic, she puts on a mask, gloves, and a flexible attitude.
She was a patient service rep before the pandemic began; now she’s a COVID symptom checker, a PPE distributor, a videographer, and a diplomat.
“Wendy has done a wonderful job screening patients during the pandemic,” says Kathy Rasmussen, the clinic’s manager. “She’s the only PSR in our clinic so she’s doubled as our greeter and screener. She’s made patients feel at ease — sending them where they need to go to get help, making appointments for those who need to be seen in the office, and setting up video visits for those who feel more comfortable with those types of visits.”
Wendy Higgs
Wendy says, “You just have to think about things a little differently to make sure our patients and our staff stay safe.”
She begins by saying why. “First and foremost, I let them know we’re taking precautions to keep them safe,” she says. “I always say, ‘For your protection, we need you to do this.’ People have been very good. They understand and they’re very willing to comply. They want everyone to be safe, too.”
Wendy makes an extra effort these days to be warm and friendly. She’s always done that, but it’s especially important now.
“She’s very personable with our patients and when they’re finished with their appointments she always asks them if there’s anything else we can help them with, tells them to take care, and to have a good day,” Kathy says. “She has excellent customer service skills. She’s very efficient, positive, friendly, and compassionate with our patients and goes out of her way to serve them in any way she can.”
Volumes in the clinic — which is in central Utah, 20 miles north of Richfield — are about 50 percent of normal, and most of their pediatric visits are done digitally. But she remembers one child who came in, who needed to mask up, and she made it kind of a super-hero thing. “His mom had a mask on, and I had one on, and I said, ‘Look, isn’t wearing a mask cool?’ He put it right on, and it was cool.”
“We’re staying positive,” Wendy says. “We enjoy taking care of people. We have important jobs, and we can’t take good care of people if we don’t stay positive and support our community.”