Seventeen Lutheran physicians, providers receive kudos!
Lutheran Medical Center often receives notes of gratitude from patients and family members, as well as words of recognition from colleagues and associates, about physicians and providers who have given extraordinary care and service.
Comments received by Press Ganey surveyors
Excellent provider and staff. Dr. Emily Speer is excellent at her profession. Her staff made a great team. So happy I found her! (Actually, she was recommended.)
Dr. David Van Kooten was amazing and had a great bedside manner. His staff was also wonderful. I felt very comfortable.
Dr. David Rutherford was top notch. Fantastic. He listened and was courteous, patient and very informative.
Dr. Homi Kapadia is a superstar, amazing. And the team of nurses was very good.
Dr. Phil Steininger was very nice and patient with my questions.
Dr. Yan Shen was great. I trusted her, very professional.
The entire team was professional, informative, extremely helpful. Dr. Juhi Asad is outstanding, along with the surgery team nurses in pre-op, recovery and post-op.
Dr. Ashley Davis and her surgical staff made me comfortable about the procedure. The ED staff provided me excellent care and showed genuine concern for my comfort. They did a great job on the diagnosis of my problem.
Was a pleasant experience. I was worried going in on what to expect. I had never met the surgeon, Dr. Ed Pulido. He was fantastic.
Dr. Amanda Kao was very friendly and helpful.
Boone Allen, PA, did an outstanding job and was very effective.
Dr. Emily Speer and the surgical team were excellent. The nurses were also excellent.
Dr. Stacy Page was wonderful. She listened and acted on our concerns.
Dr. Chris Pergrem was courteous, responsive and took the time to address my questions.
Dr. Kathleen Moran was kind, compassionate and knowledgeable, and I felt she was interested in my care.
Noah Dommer, NP, was kind and listened.
Email from the HMI Team
Dr. Phil Steininger was assigned on HMI a couple of weeks ago when we had some high-risk patients. These patients were exhibiting inappropriate behaviors and had been less than kind to multiple staff members. Dr. Steininger made a point to speak with multiple patients when they started to become escalated and was quickly able to deescalate the situation. Many members of the staff expressed their gratitude for Dr. Steininger's quick response and support of the staff in situations in which they didn't feel entirely safe. He provided a sense of calm on the unit with his support. Additionally, we had a staff member who unfortunately lost multiple family members due to an accident and he took time from his day to talk with her to console her in a time of hardship. It was touching to see his interactions with the staff and the extra time he took to speak with our more challenging patients.
Email from the HMI Team
Dr. Benjamin Briggs has been working on HMI for the last week and has been a pleasure to work with. His communication with the team has been excellent, and he’s made sure to round with team members multiple times to ensure things are addressed in a timely manner. He sits with the team at the nurse's station so he can be available to answer any questions throughout the day. We had a patient who had been challenging and non-compliant with many cares, including skin assessments and bathing. Dr. Briggs spoke with the patient at length regarding his concerns for not participating in these cares and how detrimental it would be to her health. After a 30-minute conversation with the patient, she agreed to a skin assessment and a bed bath. Dr. Briggs assisted the nurse in completing these cares and spent a total of an hour with the patient ensuring she received the care that was needed on a busy day. Dr. Briggs did not have to have to help in bathing the patient but chose to in order to support the patient and the nursing staff.
Letter from a patient’s family member
I write this commendation for Dr. Shabnam Khoie. My father-in-law was admitted to Lutheran for a heart attack. He was a patient for five days. As you can imagine, this was a traumatic time for the entire family. I would be very remiss not to extend my gratitude by having such a tremendous advocate as Dr. Khoie during this time. Here’s why:
Dr. Khoie listened to the family’s concerns. She has acute understanding that the family is an indispensable source of information to help direct patient care. To illustrate, after surgery, my father-in-law could not stay on topic. While other providers dismissed his tangential speech as quirky, Dr. Khoie simply asked, “Is this normal?” It was not. And because it was not, Dr. Khoie spent additional time speaking with him to assess him for underlying causes. She ran additional tests. Based on those results, she was able to inform the family with confidence.
Dr. Khoie understands her listener and pivots her style to improve communication. With me—a person with a medical background who spends her workdays reading medical records—she was more specific about the tests, the results and the underlying problems. With my mother-in-law, who was overwhelmed with fear, Dr. Khoie was gentle and patient, and she emphasized the good news. With my father-in-law, who is a smartass even on his worst days, she was playful but frank. How noteworthy that Dr. Khoie understood how to communicate with each of us and took the time to communicate with each of us!
It is also remarkable that Dr. Khoie spent the time to make sure we understood (i) what was done, (ii) what needs to be done, and (iii) the changes my father-in-law needs to make along the way. She seemed truly invested in our understanding. How rare it is for a doctor to talk with the family, not to the family.
Her humility makes her a better advocate. She freely admits, “I am not an oncologist. Let me go consult with yours.” When my father-in-law’s sodium levels remained low after restricting his fluids, she said, “I’ll be back. I want to consult the nephrologist.” Her ability to appreciate that her education, knowledge and specialty could be aided by the education, knowledge and specialty of another expert to help this patient was extraordinarily reassuring.
In short, it is because of Dr. Khoie that our family is confident his care was managed appropriately, we have the information necessary, and we know what to do next to help my father-in-law in his recovery. And for that, I must say, “Thank you, Dr. Khoie!”