A Q&A with our Hugo Care Coordinators
Care coordination takes a team – what does teamwork look like behind the scenes at your clinic?
Communication and meeting with each other to discuss patient situations so that we can give our patient’s quality care. Making sure that we are educated on each other’s patients so that they get continued care when one of us is not here or available. We are fortunate to not only have our own little huddles regarding patients, but we also have huddles with the Providers every week which, depending on the day, also include our MTM Pharmacist and our RN. We are a small team within a big team, which is why our patients get the valued care that they deserve.
Can you share a moment of your team working together to help a patient?
We have a diabetic patient whose blood sugars run continuously high and was overdue for a diabetic visit. Both Roxanne and I had been working on trying to get the patient scheduled. The Provider was able to reach them and she told them that one of us would be contacting them, so the patient was called right away and an appointment was scheduled. However, then the patient happened to walk in due to not feeling well. Provider worked the patient into her schedule right away. Patient’s blood sugar and A1c was extremely high. Care Coordinator called to get patient worked in to see MTM Pharmacist the next day, and RN scheduled to call patient two days later to get updates. As a team we were all able to help the patient.
What does a busy day in the clinic look like for your team, and how do you keep everything running smoothly?
Every day is busy, and you must be flexible because things can change at any time. A typical day would be answering phones, phone messages, actions, telephone encounters, registries, seeing our individual scheduled patients at office visits, helping our patients schedule needed appointments, and helping Providers. Monday – Wednesday we have scheduled huddles with our Provider’s regarding updates on patients. We may also need to switch our schedule to help the CAs with some of their telephone encounters and/or check another Care Coordinator’s messages at a different clinic.
Team work: Communication, multitasking, and prioritization.
What’s one ‘very Minnesota’ thing your team bonds over?
We (Care Coordinators) are just a small team inside a unique big team here at Hugo. We love our potlucks, bingo, celebrating special events, and we have an annual Halloween craft night that another co-worker hosts. We are more than a team, we are family!
If you had to give your team a tagline – what would it be and why?
“Caring beyond the cure” Our patients see their Providers for their medical needs, and then they have us to assist them if they have any medical concerns that they need to get to their Providers. We are also here to help them with social and community resources outside of the clinic, and to contact them as often as they need us to. Our patients are facing chronic illnesses daily, and we are here to help them and make things as stressless as possible.
