When an intake nurse finally reached a new Homecare patient referred for medication management and heard his slurred speech over the phone, she knew the patient needed immediate help. In consultation with the home health manager, she called 911.
Susan Marrott, RN
“The physician’s office was worried the patient didn’t know how to manage his medications,” says Susan Marrott, RN, intake coordinator at Salt Lake Homecare and Hospice. “I tried all night to get ahold of the patient and the patient’s family members. They didn’t return my calls. Toward the end of the night I reached out to the different managers and said, ‘How do you want to proceed with this?’”
“Susan’s so detailed oriented. Every time she calls, I know she has all the details laid out for me so we can make a great decision,” says Brett Bulloch, Utah County home health manager. He decided they’d send a nurse to visit the patient in the morning.
The next day Susan was still concerned for the patient and checked on the nurse’s schedule.
“She was going to be a little bit later getting there, so I tried to call the patient again to let him know a nurse was coming,” Susan says. “It was at that point I was able to get in touch with the patient, and I realized his speech was slurred. He wasn’t making sense. He wasn’t doing very well.”
Susan put the patient on hold, called Brett, relayed what she was hearing from the patient, and asked how soon the nurse would arrive. Because the nurse couldn’t get to the patient immediately, he advised Susan to call 911.
“I called 911,” Susan says. “Then I called the patient back and stayed on the phone with the patient until they were there. I heard the paramedics say, ‘you can go ahead and hang the phone up now.’ He hung up, and then they called me back just a short while later and gave me an update on the patient.”
The paramedics convinced the patient, who was also bleeding from a fall during the night, to go to the emergency department.
“They decided the patient actually wasn’t appropriate for home care,” Susan says. “They were able to reach his family, and they decided to place him in a skilled nursing facility.”
Susan only spends a fraction of her time on Homecare intake cases like this one. Her main responsibility is as a virtual hospice evaluation nurse where she performs video visits with patients and family members to answer questions about hospice and collaborate on a plan of care.
“Susan’s truly amazing and encompasses our healing commitments with every interaction,” says Lacey Kirby, hospice nurse administrator. “No matter what the scenario is, she’s a voice of reason and brings peace to the home during stressful situations.”