Courtney Phillips: Beebe Is Innovating For Our Patients
This article is part of the Beebe Stories: In Their Own Words series. Additional stories can be found online at: https://www.beebehealthcare.org/health-hub/community.
Courtney Philllips, RT(R), is the lead radiologic technologist at Beebe’s Margaret H. Rollins Lewes Campus.
She has been working at Beebe since 2015, shortly after graduating as an X-ray tech.
“Before the pandemic, I would have my techs assigned to the areas we cover, including the operating room, fluoroscopy, and relief. Our days were normally pretty busy as we work many areas of the hospital,” Courtney recalls. “Since COVID-19, our days may not be as busy, however our patients are much sicker. We have done many more chest X-rays than before the pandemic.”
In addition to being assigned to their areas, they also need to have a deep understanding of the precautions they must take, including what personal protective equipment (PPE) that they must have and wear in each location.
“This isn’t normal operations now. We now have daily meetings so I can update the team on new policies, numbers of COVID-19 patients, and important information about PPE,” Courtney says. “Our X-ray team is knowledgeable in their field, adaptable, and they continually go above and beyond for every patient and that has really shown as this pandemic began and evolved.”
“Because most of our work now is chest X-rays to look at the lungs of COVID-19 patients in respiratory distress, we needed to adapt the way we worked in order to protect our team and to preserve PPE,” Courtney said.
Courtney belongs to professional groups online and while reading one night she became interested in a discussion on ways to reduce the number of team members needing to don PPE for chest X-rays.
“I brought this idea to the team, management, physicists, and radiologists to see if it was something we could adopt in an effort to streamline our operations. Then we worked with the Intensive Care Unit team to see if they could support us on their end. It has been working really well and has allowed us to reduce the number of team members in the room during a chest X-ray.”
“Beebe has been amazing since this began. The communication from our management team about all things COVID has really kept me in the loop and prepared. Our manager has been on the floor answering any and all questions for us, and has supported us so we can continue to stay safe and healthy while taking care of our patients.”
“I have gotten so many well wishes from family, friends, and community members whenever I am out of the hospital, while wearing my badge or scrubs. It is a good feeling to know how much you’re appreciated, especially in trying times like this where there is much uncertainty. I am so proud to be a part of the team here at Beebe where everyone is working together to innovate and operate more efficiently, all in order to take better care of our patients and our community.”
