Connect

Recently, during the normal course of his work, Jared McComb, Patient Advocate, discovered a patient with the Interactive Home Monitoring Program was experiencing a hardship and needed a helping hand.

The patient required a wheelchair due to her health condition, and she had been renting a ramp to get in and out of her home. By the time Jared became aware of the situation, the patient could no longer afford to rent the ramp, and she was behind on her payments.  

Since the bills were piling up unpaid, the rental company was planning to reclaim the ramp, which would also take away the patient’s mobility.

That’s when Jared knew he needed to step in and help this patient.

“I got in touch with the company, and I negotiated with them to give me time to come up with some money to pay her debt down, so they wouldn’t take the ramp away,” he says. “They agreed that if we could pay off her past due amount, they would go ahead and donate the ramp to her. With that information, I had to go find money to pay for this ramp because the patient couldn’t pay for it by herself. I started calling every nonprofit organization I could think of and just kept running into roadblock after roadblock until I finally got in touch with somebody at the United Way.”

With a little creative thinking, the United Way of Greater Charlottesville found funding to pay the past due amount on the ramp. With the funding secured, it was time to tell the patient the good news.

“She was at a doctor’s office when I called her,” Jared says, “and she started bursting into tears, saying, ‘Thank you, Jesus!’ I could hear her screaming in the background, and she was very hysterical, but in an appreciative kind of way.”

Jared doesn’t think of his actions as a “grand gesture.” He says he “was just doing what needed to be done.” But, for this patient, his help was monumental and life-changing. 

“I had a sense of accomplishment but also gratitude that I was able to bring that much joy to her because she hasn’t had many positive things happen in her life,” Jared says. “That I could be a little sliver of positivity made me feel really good.

“From here on out, she doesn’t have to worry anymore. The ramp is hers permanently.”

All in a Day’s Work

Jared works in Population Health alongside 11 other patient advocates, a nurse practitioner, a physician’s assistant, a nurse, two behavioral health counselors, two pharmacists, and a pharmacy technician who work tirelessly for patients.

“Officially, my job is to help coordinate follow-up care, complete a Patient Health Questionnaire to monitor signs of depression, complete social-determinants-of-health screening, schedule appointments, transportation, make sure they’re getting in touch with their doctors and medication reconciliation,” Jared says. “Typically, we find there’s a lot more to it than that. What I tell my patients when I work with them is that my job is to make sure things don’t fall through the cracks with their care when they leave the hospital.”

At any given time, the team is working with 400-600 patients total. Every day, new patients enter as others cycle out of the program, but the average number of patients per advocate is around 60 at any given time.

“You work with thousands and thousands of patients per year,” Jared says, “but when they return back to the hospital, a familiar name pops up, and you’re like, ‘I know who that is!’ You remember them, so they’re not just a name on a board somewhere.”

The Patient Advocate team prides themselves on providing great service and, hopefully, being a trusted and valuable ally.

“A lot of times, the advocates end up being a critical part of these patient’s lives,” Jared says.

He has examples of how caregivers may call to thank their loved one’s advocate because that was the loved one’s dying wish or how a patient in a mental health crisis called because he had no one else to contact.  

“I find that all of the team members that I work with go way above and beyond what they’re called to do in their everyday job because they care for these patients,” Jared says.

Patient advocates are a reminder that healthcare is so much more than what happens inside doctors’ office or the patients’ room. Jared describes the team as a “bridge between the hospital and the community,” and what a crucial bridge that is for so many.

Thank you to the Patient Advocates and the Population Health team for being that bridge, safety net, and so much more to our UVA Health patients. We appreciate you!