Maureen Blum

The Case Managers at North Fulton Regional Hospital do much to add to the high quality service offered each and every day.   Here we salute them, offering a bit of perspective as we look into the lives of three of our exceptional case management team members:

As North Fulton Regional Hospital celebrates 25 years of service to the community, Case Manager Maureen Blum can do some celebrating herself. A dedicated employee for 24 of those years, she was recently honored with the North Fulton Hero Award.

Every year Tenet honors exceptional hospital caregivers through its Heroes Hall of Fame Award. These honorees are recognized by their peers for going the extra mile to ensure that each patient receives the best care possible. This year North Fulton Regional Hospital nominated Maureen Blum as the North Fulton Hero. And it’s not hard to see why.

“Maureen listens with great attentiveness to family members grieving the loss of a loved one,” her peers say. “She goes out of her way to find help and support for parents of desperately
ill children, and she does it all with grace and compassion.”

Maureen began her work as a case manager at North Fulton Regional Hospital in 1986. She continues to enjoy her job, both for its challenges and its rewards.

“Helping patients navigate through the myriad rules and regulations of Medicare, Medicaid, and other insurance companies can be tricky,” she says. “But the successes keep me going. I have had so many people stop me in the hall asking me if I remember them, thanking me for helping them through whatever crisis they had during an admission, sometimes as long as a year ago.”

This year Maureen will move on to the next stage of her life as she leaves her career behind to become a fulltime “Grammy.” Her retirement, while deserved, is looked upon with sadness by her co-workers.

“Everyone is dreading the day that Maureen will retire” her peers say. “Her little—and not so little—acts of kindness are legendary.”

Looking ahead, Maureen yearns to spend her time traveling in her RV all across the country, visiting her children and seeing all the tourist spots along the way. Until then, North Fulton Regional Hospital will benefit from her caring heart and skill for her position as Case Manager.

	Shirley Ritchie

Case Management is much more than simply coordinating a patient’s care plan. For Shirley Ritchie, it’s an opportunity to profoundly help a family with discharge plans and help ensure the safest, most appropriate follow-up care.
Ritchie has been working as a case manager in the hospital setting for eight years, the most recent four years spent at North Fulton Regional Hospital. Working in the critical care setting, she admits that her job can often be challenging.

“We have to coordinate with the physician on a prognosis that may be poor while at the same time working with an eternally optimistic family. This can be hard.”

Ritchie remains motivated in the face of these difficult situations.

“I often think, ‘What if this were my family member in a crisis? What can I do with my team to make a stressful situation better?’” Ritchie explains. “In almost all cases we are given verbal feedback with such appreciation that at times it will move us to tears. It’s often not what we do but how we do it that seals the deal with discharge planning.”
Outside of her hospital work, Ritchie is also active in the community, taking a special interest in providing services to the homeless and indigent.

“I am presently providing the indigent and homeless a diabetic foot care clinic at St. Mark’s Church in Atlanta.” Ritchie says. Through this clinic, which is held every eight weeks, Ritchie and her volunteers provide numerous services including soaking, trimming, and education. She also provides antifungal medications, new socks and shower shoes. “NFRH assisted with supporting this clinic by approving my request for a matching gift program a year ago. So far we have held five clinics, and the outreach has been very rewarding for both the attendees and the volunteers.”

Without a career in case management, Ritchie would still manage to pursue her passion for providing access to quality care for all people.

“If I weren’t a case manager, I would likely pursue a political career involving healthcare initiatives.” For now, however, North Fulton Regional Hospital is lucky to have Ritchie’s passion and dedication on the Case Management team.

Karen Shandor

With a strong, 27-year background as a nurse, Karen Shandor brings significant experience to her role as Case Manager for North Fulton Regional Hospital.

Her interest in this profession began as a result of personal involvement with the care of her mother.

“I saw personally in my own family how my mom’s care could have been better if all the disciplines were on the same page,” she says. This sparked an interest for Shandor, this lack of cohesiveness, so she pursued a career in case management, a decision she finds rewarding.
“A case manager is similar to the glue holding a puzzle together. Everyone has their own area of practice; a case manager’s responsibility is to oversea the entire picture of a patient’s care, which includes post-hospital care.”

Staying alert to and aware of the different goals for each patient is certainly a full-time job, one that Shandor thoroughly enjoys. She thrives in an environment where she is able to ensure that a patient’s care is “delivered by the right practitioner at the right time and in the right setting.” When all of these pieces of the puzzle come together, good things can happen.

“I become motivated when I see a patient respond from a coma state to walking on their own. This makes my job so rewarding.”
Beyond her role as a case manager, Shandor enjoys spending time with her dog, taking time each day for a walk in the park. This helps her to separate work from family time. She lso extends here professional role as caregiver into her home, where she enjoys being a foster mom for dogs.

For more information about North Fulton Regional Hospital, call 770-751-2500, or visit www.northfultonregional.com/.