This crew earned Salem Health’s Team Award for executing a difficult biopsy for an ER patient with within a timeframe that could have had drastic consequences, if delayed.
A 12-year-old arrived in the ED with renal failure and 'echogenic kidneys' on ultrasound. Normally renal biopsies in the afternoon are prepped overnight for the next morning. But the next day’s schedule didn’t have time for the complicated procedure —plus, the next day was Friday.
The decision was made to do the biopsy that night. Despite being unfamiliar with renal biopsies, Johnson learned on-the-fly with Dr. Hanson. The patient was very difficult to scan by ultrasound and biopsy. Dr. Smith, on-call pathologist, stayed late to view preliminary samples to ensure the biopsy was sufficient. Without her, the team wouldn’t have known it wasn’t … and as a result, repeated the biopsy to avoid a significant delay in patient treatment.
Cindy monitored the patient during the lengthy procedure. The whole effort wouldn’t have succeeded without her willingness to switch gears to help at an unusual time. Ali also stayed late to help with the numerous and necessary logistics. Her cool head and calm manner under pressure was extremely helpful to the effort, as was her flexibility and work ethic to stay.
As with all great teams, each member was indispensable. It is not an exaggeration to say that without any one member, the whole effort would have been unsuccessful. Many things were unusual or new about this particular case: the time of day, the age of the patient, knowledge of the procedure for the technologist, but because of the team's dedication to patient care these obstacles were overcome and a successful diagnosis was obtained. All deserve recognition for their efforts.