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(L-r): Meehan and Jerauld speak with a patient’s family member.
Anyone who has waited while a family member undergoes surgery knows how stressful that time can be. For 20 years, BIDMC’s west campus surgical liaison volunteer program has helped make the wait a little easier. Thirteen dedicated volunteers facilitate communication between surgeons, post anesthesia care unit (PACU) nurses and family members by providing updates straight from the operating and recovery rooms. Volunteers also occasionally offer practical information about places to eat and stay.
Marion Jerauld, a surgical liaison since the program’s inception and a graduate of New England Deaconess Hospital’s school of nursing, found the program to be a much-needed lifeline during a difficult period in her life.
“I was newly widowed and it was hard just to go out, but the Deaconess had always been an important part of my life and it was just like going home,” recalls Jerauld, whose nursing background comes in handy as a surgical liaison. “How nice it is to be able to provide help during those dreadful hours for family members.”
Lowry
Surgical Liaison Eleanor Lowry joined the program after retiring from a 25-year career in administration at the medical center, the last seven in patient relations.
“You meet people at a very human level, when they’re most anxious and concerned,” she says of the family members she comforts. “Easing that anxiety just means giving them an honest, supportive answer and frequent updates as to how things are going in the OR. Sometimes it’s just a matter of striking the right chord.”
Thanks to the joint efforts of BIDMC’s volunteer services office, the Friends of BIDMC and the nursing department, the surgical liaison program now has its own full-time volunteer coordinator, Susan Meehan.
“Often family members express their gratitude, stating that there is no program at other hospitals they have visited that even comes close to providing the level of service we do,” Meehan says. “It makes it all worthwhile to see the difference we can make for our families.”
Recently BIDMC honored its surgical liaisons with a 20th anniversary gala.
Click here to see photos from the event.
Information on becoming a surgical liaison: Julia Dunbar, director of volunteer services, at
(66)7-3027
Published monthly for the people of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to build community, communicate direction, foster pride and recognize accomplishments.
Produced by Beth Israel Deaconess communications, (66)7-7300
director, internal communications:
Cindy Whitcome
managing editor:
Valerie Hope Goldstein
print and web layout & design:
Hugh Blaisdell, Christopher Ruhle
contributing writer:
Cindy Whitcome
contributing photographers:
Oran Barber, Bruce Wahl
© BIDMC, Boston, MA, USA, 2006. All rights reserved. Material may be reproduced only with the express written consent of communications.
BIDMC is an EEO/AA employer.
(L-r): ACOVE's Patrice Samuels, PTC; Agarwal; Rebecca Gottlieb, RN; and Kristeller with a patient.
Knowing that a hospital stay can be especially difficult for elderly patients, BIDMC is expanding an important program to support them.
ACOVE (acute care of vulnerable elders), a service formerly housed on 11 Reisman, has been decentralized and will expand hospital-wide into an interdisciplinary consultation service following a current pilot of unit-based nursing consultation and mobility programs.
In the nursing consultation program, the ACOVE team, led by Christine Conroy Kristeller, RN, and Katy Agarwal, MD, receives a daily list of patients over age 70 on Farr 7 and Farr 11 who may be at risk for health complications and decline in their ability to function. The list may include patients who have fallen recently, those who use walkers or other assistive devices, and individuals with memory deficits or confusion. Kristeller consults with each patient’s care team to ensure that plans are in line with best practices for care of hospitalized elders.
The proactive approach is an important feature of the expanded services, says Kristeller. “We want to know right away when these patients are admitted,” she notes. “We can take steps from the outset to help each care team prevent problems from developing.”
Kristeller and Agarwal make recommendations that have been shown to improve outcomes in the hospital, such as limiting use of hypnotic medications for sleep and getting patients up and around as early as possible. The team collaborates with the geriatric medicine consult service and identifies complex patients who may benefit from physician consultation when requested.
As part of the mobility program, Joan Drevins, PT, CCS, physical therapy, helps the nurse managers, Denise Corbett-Carbonneau, RN, on Farr 7, and Linda Denekamp, RN, on Farr 11, train staff on the importance of getting elder patients mobile early in their stay and on the proper way to mobilize them. Says Kristeller, “Many complications can be prevented simply by getting patients out of bed to a chair for even 20 minutes a day.”
(L-r): ACOVE's Kristeller, Denekamp, Drevins, Agarwal, Longo and Corbett-Carbonneau. Missing: Maibor
In addition to nurse managers, other staff contributing geriatric expertise to this program are Marion Longo, RN, patient care technician coordinator, and Mary Ann Maibor, LICSW, social work. ACOVE is funded in part as one of BIDMC’s “heart and soul” programs.
Currently the ACOVE team is leading a hospital-wide initiative to improve care of elders through a nursing education program, Nurses Improving Care to Health System Elders (NICHE). In the fall of 2006, nurses and patient care assistants from every unit will be recruited to receive NICHE training and to become geriatric resource nurses and geriatric resource techs.
“This group of nursing staff will lead the way to improve the care of all elders at BIDMC,” says Agarwal. “With the support of nursing administration and Mark Zeidel, MD, [chair, department of medicine], the ACOVE team is creating an innovative approach to care for elders at BIDMC. All of our team members pour their heart and soul into BIDMC’s patients and are the reason it is the best hospital, and the best place for older adults to receive care in Boston.