Pictured, front, left to right: Madeleine Saldana, HomeServe; Sara Bacon, MSN, RN, nurse director of Critical Care, Erlanger Health System; Petra McWhorter-Green, marketing director nursing, CHI Memorial; back, left to right: Damien Brady, HomeServe; Fred Rodriguez, COO, HomeServe; Rhonda Hatfield, chief nursing officer, CHI Memorial; Scott Weddle, vice president, Contact Center Operations, HomeServe
Representatives from Erlanger Children’s Hospital and CHI Memorial gathered at HomeServe’s Operations Center, 7134 Lee Highway in Chattanooga last Tuesday for a special technology donation.
"As many have experienced throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals and healthcare facilities have had to significantly limit the number of people entering their facilities," officials said. "For patients of all kinds, this has meant not being able to see their loved ones in person during their hospital stays. As they are, nurses proved masters at solving problems and used their personal cell phones and tablets to enable people to stay connected.
"Having heard the story from a friend and Erlanger nurse, HomeServe’s Scott Weddle brought the idea to the HomeServe Cares Foundation, HomeServe’s charitable arm, to see how the company could help. Today, each hospital was gifted four Apple iPads to use throughout their hospitals to connect patients with families, friends and loved ones who are unable to visit the hospitals for whatever reason."
Mr. Weddle, HomeServe’s vice president of Call Center Operations, said, “Over the course of the last year, one of the last things that I've seen and read is all these stories about nurses and doctors who have gone above and beyond for people in the hospital and trying to make a tough time as manageable as possible. When I heard the story from the friends of a friend how nurses were using their personal iPhones to enable patients to FaceTime, it just tugged at my heart strings in a huge way."
CHI Memorial’s Chief Nursing Officer Rhonda Hatfield said, “What we’ve learned is we have a lot of technology in the hospital, but getting the technology out of the hospital when visitors are restricted was our challenge. So, this is very meaningful and we learned a lot, as most companies have, how we will do better in the future to connect people from around the country.”
Erlanger’s Nurse Director of Critical Care Sara Bacon said, “We are so grateful for HomeServe’s generous gift. COVID taught us to be creative with how we connect our patients with their loved ones. Patients and families will benefit from the iPads for years to come.”
In Chattanooga, HomeServe employs more than 600 people.