The Tennessee Quality Care Wish program helps make final wishes come true for patients. Our nurses and care staff seek to find out what the patient’s needs and desires are and then works to grant those wishes. A wish might be as simple as an ice cream treat and might be as complicated as helping a patient visit their home country in South America.
Recently, we assisted an Air Force Veteran in playing “the slots” one last time. Due to the patient’s declining condition, the team had to rent a van to transport the patient, his loved ones and his medical equipment to the casino. Despite the complicated transport process, the patient was so excited about his trip that he talked all of the way to the casino. Even after returning home the patient appeared to have rallied. He had a new spring in his step!
One of our patients enjoyed reminiscing about hunting and fishing during his visits with our chaplain. The patient stated that he would love to be able to go catch some bass one more time. The chaplain worked with the rest of his team to book a Saturday trip to the Lazy Hills Resort. Four of our staff joined the patient and his two daughters. The patient caught several big bass and told our chaplain “This is the best trip I have been on in my whole life.”
For an Idaho patient, their biggest wish was to be able to move back to Kansas to be close to remaining family. The team quickly went to work finding a living facility in Kansas that would accept the patient and then getting Kansas Medicaid approval. The patient was too unstable to travel alone, so one of our nurses accompanied the patient and got them settled and comfortable in their home.
When we say, “Whatever it takes, when it matters the most,” we mean it!