SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – For some people, having a surgery can be scary when you’re alone. And making sense of a diagnosis can get confusing. That’s why two local nurses have started a medical concierge program so patients can get one-on-one care with health care professionals.
Nicole Hanson and Jackie Faryna have a combined 25 years of experience in the medical field working in a variety of units and states.
“I started out doing PCU, cardiac telemetries, specialty and then kind of have done — traveling nursing you kind of do it all,” Hanson said.
“Neuro, trauma, CVICU monitoring, medical, surgical ICU, all the different things,” Faryna said. “And then I started travel nursing.”
They met in 2018 while working in Arizona but later re-established a friendship when they both ended up settling in Sioux Falls. Now, they are running a unique medical business together.
“Nurse Connect is a nursing concierge service,” Hanson said. “Brand new and the only of it’s kind in Sioux Falls. So what makes nursing concierge special is it is very privatized and individualized to people. It’s in the realm of home health but it is elevated in that we can do pretty much anything you want. We’re not limited by what is required by insurance agencies.”
Take, for example, you have a major surgery coming up but no one to drive you. Hanson and Faryna can step in to take you to and from the hospital. They can even help monitor you at home to make sure everything is okay afterwards. But that’s not all.
“My favorite service that we’re offering is the stand-in visitor or proxy visitor service,” Fayrna said. “So basically what it is, is Nicole or I can go and visit someone in a long-term care facility, in hospice, even in-patient if they’re long-term in-patient, while the family members takes a little time for themselves.”
Plus, they’ll know what questions to ask that you or a family member might not.
“We understand who to call for resources, we understand you to help you coordinate some medical decisions,” Hanson said. “And also take pressure off family who, you know, we’re an unbiased perspective. So if there’s just conflict of, ‘we don’t know what’s next and what’s best,’ we’re that perfect person to come in and help advocate for what the client needs.”
Hanson and Faryna already have a variety of services they can offer, but they say there’s room to do even more.
“There’s one thing that I am very interested in starting for us is basically compiling someone’s medical history into a binder that can really help them see all of the history and bring it with them when they go to a new specialist so they can look back at old labs things like that,” Faryna said. “Especially if you’re new to the town and you’re information is not all in Avera or Sanford’s charting systems.”
One-on-one help that can make a trip to the doctor seem a little less daunting.
“We do spend a lot of time with our client pre-assessing, getting their home ready, helping them understand what they need, med regime and then following up with them days after procedure to see how they’re doing,” Hanson said.
“Just knowing that there’s someone who can be on your team that really can understand what you are going through,” Faryna said.
Hanson and Faryna say they take clients within 50 miles of Sioux Falls, but are also willing to drive to appointments in the larger hospitals nearby like Mayo Clinic.
