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» A magazine for and about Oregon Community Hospitals.
HOSPITAL SPOTLIGHTS, CONT.
22
Great Heights
AMERICAN FLAG PROMPTS PATIENT EXPERIENCE AT ASANTE
Rhonda Bartholomew, a nurse in the orthopedics unit at
Asante Three Rivers Medical Center
in Grants Pass
got a recent reminder of just how far the reach of patient
experience can extend.
She had a patient recently who was perfectly happy with
everything about his stay during a knee operation. But when
the time came to prepare him for a physical therapy session
and then discharge, something was bothering him.
“He said it was something that had nothing to do with me,
and he was sure that there was nothing I could do about it
anyway, but he just needed to say it,” Bartholomew said.
“I told him, ‘Of course, I’m your nurse and I care about
everything—and you might be surprised what I can do.’”
The patient explained he is a Marine Corps veteran and
many of his friends had died in the Vietnam War. He felt
strongly about honoring the American flag and had noticed
the one on the hospital campus—visible from his room
window—was tangled in a tree.
While still in the patient’s room, Bartholomew phoned her
unit clerk, explained the situation and asked her to call
the facilities staff to have the flag freed from the tree. The
flag was flying freely by the time the patient completed his
physical therapy session and was preparing to leave the
hospital.
But neither the story nor the patient’s satisfaction with
Asante ended there. The facilities employees who had
freed the flag noticed it had become faded and tattered, so
arrangements were made for a flag retirement ceremony.
A trumpeter was booked from the Merlin, Oregon
detachment of the Young Marines. Asante Three Rivers
security officers volunteered to be a part of the ceremony—
Rob Gunderson presented the new flag and Daron Dawson
served as master of ceremonies. The hospital’s chaplain
Sandra Richard gave the invocation, and nutrition services
coordinator Bobbi Bussey arranged for refreshments.
Bartholomew and the Marine Corps veteran who noticed the
original issue with the flag also attended the ceremony.
“He kept thanking me for making it happen and I had the
opportunity to explain that I couldn’t have made that
happen alone,” Bartholomew said. “I told him that’s how we
do it here; we pull together as a team for a better outcome
because we care beyond changing bandages and giving
medications. We care for the whole patient by caring about
what our patients care about.”
In all, about 30 people attended the weekend flag ceremony.
“The patient was so moved by the whole ceremony and the
fact that we at Asante would go to such lengths to care for
our patients even when it didn’t actually have anything to do
with ‘patient care,’” Bartholomew said.
She remembers the tears in her patient’s eyes, and his
parting words: “I feel so cared for here that it almost
makes me want to go back into the hospital and get my
other knee fixed.”
H
A flag retirement ceremony takes place at Asante