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Blog Blitz - 5 of 6

Feb 16, 2012 by Marc Strode, CEO
Folks,
There is a local push by the Del Rio Chamber of Commerce to recognize those people in our community who are "Doin' Right by Del Rio".  Well, this is the first of two stories I will tell that fit this spirit to the T.

This weekend, with all the bad weather, we had a patient that was involved in a traffic accident.  They happened to be a friend of one of our team members, Ale Torres who is a PT assistant in our rehab services area.  So as the patient was being brought into the hospital, they told two of our staff of the relationship between them and made a point of saying several times that "Ale Torres is my neighbor and works at VVRMC...." before they could no longer communicate. The two who were made aware were Susie Jechow, our Director of EMS Academy and Gracie Villerreal, one of our fine PBX Operators.  Both worked hard to make an attempt to track Ale down, who happened to be working on Saturday.  She was able to break away from her shift and visit her friend in the ED.  As a result, she was able to make contact with family members, deliver the news they had been in an accident and inform them of the receiving hospital in San Antonio after transfer out of VVRMC. 

The persistence of Susie and Gracie to work to find Ale and get that information to her made a huge difference!  What if they had let that roll off, not listened or dismissed it as being irrelevant to what was going on.  Then maybe the patient gets transferred out and no one in the family knows what is going on or where their loved one is. 

This is another outstanding example of taking the extra step, communicating and connecting the dots.  It was a little thing, or a simple gesture, that made a huge impact.  Ale was so impressed that she made an appointment with me to share the good news.  I thought it was newsworthy to let the entire team know how this played out.  Ale--thanks for managing up your friends! 

Once again, great teamwork and the best outcome during a bad situation.

Keep the Spirit,
Marc