Through VUMC’s COVID-to-HOME program, more than 1,500 coronavirus patients have received care coordination services, telemedicine support and hospital-to-home support to assist them on their journey to recovery. One of those patients, Nashville resident Bill Boyce, 73, was the first patient intubated on VUMC’s dedicated COVID-19 unit. Boyce spent 28 days under the vigilant care of the inpatient COVID-19 team, ultimately recovering and being discharged to home on April 24.
One of the teams that aided in his recovery was the VUMC Care Coordination COVID-19 team led by Julie Scott, RN. When Boyce first received his positive test result in mid-March, Scott’s team began providing telehealth follow-up phone calls as he quarantined at home. His symptoms worsened and his primary care physician, Tiffany Hines, MD, requested an in-person visit by a VUMC provider on March 27. Mary Walden, MSN, FNP-BC, part of the COVID-to-Home program, made a telehealth phone call to Boyce that same day, and shortly after Melissa Duque, RN, with Vanderbilt Home Care Services visited him at home. He was raced to the VUMC Emergency Department, and after evaluation he was moved to the COVID Unit to begin his nearly month-long stay.
Boyce credits a broad network of care at VUMC, a continuum of watchfulness that extended both before and after his hospitalization, for saving his life. Read on to learn more about the VUMC COVID-to-HOME program.