She is dedicated, committed and innovative in her role
I am fortunate to work with Mary Warner, who has worked in the Infusion department for a little under 4 years, but for the system for just shy of 40 years. Mary has a wealth of knowledge and a passion for her work. She makes every effort to meet the needs of the patients that she cares for, whether coming in early, staying late, or creating space.
In the four years that Mary has worked in Infusion, in an informal lead role, she has helped grow the volume from 1,300 visits annually to over 3,400 visits. In 2020, during the COVID pandemic, Infusion remained open, ensuring patients could receive much needed infusions to avoid hospitalizations, and even with reduced capacity, Mary found a way to make space, working with Infection Prevention to ensure the safety of staff and patients, and grew the volume by 31% over 2019. Mary understands the value of this service line and is always willing to find a way to ensure access for this patient population.
In 2019, Infusion leadership in collaboration with nursing staff developed a plan to ensure weekend coverage in Infusion. Historically, the department leaned on inpatient nursing to support patients on Sunday. Mary worked with the infusion nursing staff to come up with a coverage plan.
Another key initiative led by Mary addressed medication ordering. Mary collaborates routinely with pharmacy to ensure that medications for infusion patients are ordered and available for the patient's scheduled appointment. In 2017-2018, Infusion identified a problem where patients would present for their appointment, but the med was not available. Infusion leadership, Mary, Pharmacy leadership, and continuous improvement, studied the problem, based on the data that Mary had tracked. We came up with a solution to use a shared spreadsheet, updated by nursing on a weekly basis, reflecting patients scheduled for the next week. Pharmacy utilizes this spreadsheet to order medications, as Infusion meds, which can be costly, are typically ordered when needed. Pharmacy uses this spreadsheet to confirm when meds are ordered. It has helped to reduce the number of incidents where patients present and the med is not available.
During the Christmas holiday, Mary works with food services to order Christmas cookies for patients. The little gesture brings so much joy to our patients.
These are a few of the many things that Mary does to support the patients presenting to Infusion. In addition, Mary, along with the other Infusion nursing staff, cover call for Cardiac procedures, inclusive of TEEs and Cardioversions. Previous to Infusion, she worked in the Cardiac Cath lab as well as stress testing, so is comfortable in this arena. However, it requires extended hours to support this work. Mary, again, does what is needed to support our patients. Mary deserves recognition for her dedication and commitment to her work as well as her innovative approach to her role.
Della Davenport is a nurse in the Infusion Center at Bronson Battle Creek Hospital. She is the recipient of the 2021 Hazel Latondress Expertise Award, and was recognized during the Nursing Excellence Celebration.
