This story appeared on the Community Health Network employee intranet and in Perspectives, the employee newsletter in February 2008.
OBJECTIVE
In an issue dedicated to the theme “Creating Exceptional Experiences for Patients and their Families,” this story was meant to convey how employees create compassionate and special experiences for their patients and families.
TEXT
Community Hospital North’s concierge and nursing staff know a thing or two about creating exceptional experiences for their patients and families, but recently they found themselves in uncharted territory when they planned and hosted a wedding for a terminally ill patient and his fiancée.
Rossie and Pamela Buchanan were married in the hospital’s chapel on September 10, two days after Rossie was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer.
The two had known each other since grade school. They dated in high school, but lost contact when Pamela went away to college. She was married for 20 years before divorcing, but Rossie never married. They reunited in 2004 and planned to marry after Pamela finished her studies in medical billing and coding at Indiana Business College.
“We just thought we had time to get married and we were in no hurry to do that. We were going to be together. We were in love,” Pamela says. When Rossie learned he had terminal liver cancer, “he said, ‘baby, you promised me you’d marry me.’ I said, ‘I will.’”
On the morning of the wedding, nursing staff notified the concierge desk of the couple’s desire to be married, and concierge staff met with Pamela and Rossie to see how they could grant their special wish. With the help of nurses, other staff members and the Community Health Network Foundation, the concierges planned the wedding for later that day.
The wedding was complete with flowers, music, wedding cake, refreshments and a photographer. The foundation provided rings from the FigLeaf Boutique. The ceremony was held in Community North’s Rollins Family Chapel and was followed by a reception in the second-floor atrium. About 20 of the couple’s friends and family members attended.
“It was just like a fairy tale that day,” Pamela recalls. “When Ms. Yvonne (Shinkle) called me, she explained who she was and what she wanted to do. I just couldn’t believe it. This is the kind of thing that just doesn’t happen to us. My girlfriend, who was with me, knows people who have spent thousands of dollars on weddings and none was as beautiful as ours.”
As newlyweds rode away from the chapel in the foundation’s electric cart, staff and visitors clapped and cheered.
Rossie died September 17. “The hospice people came in the day after the wedding and told me that sometimes when people get what they really want, they can be at peace and start their journey,” Pamela says. “The way things happened, I know he was very happy. He got to say two times, ‘somebody go get my wife.’ I know that brought him great pleasure, as it did me. I will never forget how the hospital blessed us.”
But Pamela Buchanan’s exceptional patient and family experience story has only just begun. Now, she has the opportunity to share with others the kind of compassionate and special treatment she and Rossie felt last fall—as a Community North concierge. She joined the Community team in February.
Amberly Peterson 