{"id":24758,"date":"2017-04-05T10:47:30","date_gmt":"2017-04-05T14:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/toh.wpengine.com\/en\/?p=24758"},"modified":"2021-02-17T10:42:08","modified_gmt":"2021-02-17T15:42:08","slug":"hospital-staff-bring-married-patients-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/uncategorized\/hospital-staff-bring-married-patients-together\/","title":{"rendered":"Hospital staff bring married patients together"},"content":{"rendered":"

7 East Clinical Manager Maureen McGrath (third from left) didn\u2019t hesitate to transfer a patient from 8 West whose wife was on 7 East awaiting surgery. On 8 West, Clinical Manager Jeffrey Lepine (right), Clinical Care Leader Kelly Lafontaine (left) and staff members from both units helped make the transfer happen.<\/em><\/p>\n

As difficult as it is to be a patient in a hospital, it\u2019s even more difficult when you\u2019re admitted at the same time as a spouse.<\/p>\n

However, it does happen more often than you\u2019d think. Fortunately, many compassionate doctors, nurses and other staff members across many clinical units and campuses work together to ensure that spouses can be in the same room while at The Ottawa Hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to stress that things like this, or similar to this, happen all the time,\u201d said Maureen McGrath, Clinical Manager for 7 East. \u201cIt\u2019s moments like these that remind you why you\u2019re in health care.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recently, McGrath was approached by 8 West Clinical Care Leader Kelly Lafontaine about a patient admitted on 8 West. The patient was palliative and his wife was also admitted, on 7 East awaiting surgery. Upon discovering this, there was no question that they would get the patients together \u2013 it was just a matter of how.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what I do and why I went into health care,\u201d said Thoracic Surgeon Dr. Donna Maziak.<\/p>\n

\"Patients<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

A patient of Dr. Donna Maziak (second from right) needed to be admitted, but he did not want to be in the hospital because his wife was about to be admitted for surgery. With the help of 6 Northwest staff and Clinical Manager Jan Leahy (right), they were able to admit both patients to the same unit so they could be together.<\/em><\/p>\n

In a separate instance, Dr. Maziak discovered during a recent clinic visit that one of her patients would need to be admitted. But he didn\u2019t want that because his wife was about to be admitted for surgery. With the help of Clinical Manager Jan Leahy, they made the special arrangements necessary to admit both patients to 6 Northwest.<\/p>\n

It takes an incredible amount of coordination and collaboration amongst various groups \u2013 from the doctors, nurses and managers to clerks, social workers and housekeepers \u2013 to make the necessary arrangements for patients in these unfortunate circumstances.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the small and often unrecognized acts of kindness that make up the true character of a hospital.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn situations like these, everyone understands the importance of compassion and the patient experience,\u201d said Jeffrey Lepine, Clinical Manager for 8 West. \u201cThere\u2019s no question that we would try to accommodate the request from the patients and family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Maziak\u2019s patient and his wife were able to support each other throughout their time in hospital and be discharged together with the help of the Psychosocial Oncology Program. The patient on 8 West was able to move down to 7 East, have his bed pushed next to his wife\u2019s and pass away surrounded by family and the love of his life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

7 East Clinical Manager Maureen McGrath (third from left) didn\u2019t hesitate to transfer a patient from 8 West whose wife was on 7 East awaiting surgery. On 8 West, Clinical Manager Jeffrey Lepine (right), Clinical Care Leader Kelly Lafontaine (left) and staff members from both units helped make the transfer happen. As difficult as it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":24766,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ottawahospital.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}