A diabetic patient had the goal to get to 37 weeks of her pregnancy.
But to do that, she needed a medication change. Lyn Dugger advocated for the patient with the insurance company to ensure the medication was covered.
And it was. Thanks to Lyn.
The patient made it to her goal. She had a healthy baby, and the mother was doing well too.
This is just one of several patients that Lyn has helped in her career as a Licensed Practical Nurse. Lyn works as an LPN for specialty healthcare providers including those providing orthopedic, cardiology, neurology, diabetic health and wound care at the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas Pittsburg North clinic. Lyn helps patients with medication refills, she takes telephone encounters, completes prior authorizations, and assists with referrals to the specialists from Walk-In Care and primary care providers. She also rooms patients and helps with tasks such as Wound Care dressing changes.
“CHC/SEK specialty care is very good for our self-pay patients who can’t afford to go to the hospital or other specialty clinics,” Lyn shares. “Some of those patients wouldn’t be able to afford to be seen as often or even get the kind of medications they need. It’s invaluable for our community because if they can’t go get healthcare somewhere they just deteriorate.”
It makes Lyn’s day if she can get just one person the healthcare they need.
“People who are helpful and kind in those situations are so much more important than they realize,” Lyn says. “They can make a huge difference to a person. If I can do that for someone, then my job’s done.”
Being a single mother to four children was difficult at times, especially with worries about being able to afford health care for her family. Lyn was shown kindness, and it was the kindness of others when her family needed it the most that motivated her to give back as an LPN.
She actually got her start in the medical field as an office manager at an obstetrics clinic.
“I was perfectly happy doing the claims processing, the ordering, the budgets,” Lyn says. “The more the doctor taught me, the more I learned, the more I thought that I didn’t want to do insurance claims. I wanted to become a nurse.”
At 35 years old, Lyn went back to school at the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville to become a nurse before starting her nursing career at a Federally Qualified Health Center in Arkansas then later moving back to her hometown, Pittsburg.
“My nursing license is extremely important to me,” she says. “I hold it really dear, maybe because I had to wait so long to go. I’m blessed because I get to do what I love to do.”