Employee Spotlight - Seniorita Lucas, Employee of the Quarter Winner for Q3, FY20

May 25, 2020
Spotlight on Seniorita Lucas
Congratulations to Seniorita Lucas, one of our Employee of the Quarter winners for Q3, FY20.

Today, we want to recognize Seniorita Lucas, clinic liaison, in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Allergy and Sleep Medicine. Seniorita is known for her strong work ethic, innovative ideas, drive and determination to improve all of the many projects she takes on. She is recognized by her colleagues for being a true patient advocate who always puts patients first to ensure they receive the care they need. She is praised for her exceptional performance during the COVID-19 pandemic for spearheading pulmonary’s telemedicine practice by helping to educate providers and coworkers on how to utilize MyChart for virtual visits. Seniorita is highly regarded by patients, clinic managers, physicians and nurses. She is a vital part of pulmonary’s administrative team, and we are proud to have Seniorita in the Department of Medicine!

Always puts our patients first

"Seniorita has always put our patients first. She has assisted in making sure patients that need a higher level of care have access to nurse coordinators. She is always willing to assist with those of us who are new to the scheduling platform and she does it all with a smile on her face. She is genuine and kind and it shows in the work she does daily. Seniorita has only been with the division a short time but she has become an asset to our team." -Katie Benfield

True patient advocate

"While Seniorita displays the qualities, work ethic and team player spirit that exemplifies the Employee of the Quarter nomination criteria every day, this nomination is specific to the recent activities surrounding COVID-19. As of March 16, the Pulmonary Administrative team began working remotely as the result of COVID-19. Unlike hurricane season, where we often have a few work days at the office to prepare, COVID-19 was a Sunday evening change of plans effective immediately. With the first Pulmonary admin team call on Monday morning, Seniorita took the lead on how COVID-19 would impact Pulmonary ambulatory clinic operations across multiple sites. She quickly became the point person connecting with Pulmonary providers, clinic managers and clinic nursing staff, central scheduling, nurse navigators, program managers and Pulmonary patients. She facilitated converting face-to-face appointments into video visits and virtual visits by working with peer groups and leadership. She developed processes and protocols for implementing video and virtual visits, gathered information from multiple sources and compiled an easy "how to" guide for contacting patients, explaining the options, walking the patient through every step that would be involved in a video visit, insuring that the patients would have the necessary access and equipment for a video visit and that the schedule in Epic reflected which video visit type was selected. Seniorita hosted a Web Ex training for Pulmonary colleagues that were going to assist in this effort. She fielded questions from providers, patients and team members. She tracked and monitored daily clinic schedules for each provider looking for opportunities to provide video visit access for patients. In addition to all of this, she carried out her regularly assigned tasks. Seniorita approaches every task with professionalism and a great attitude. She is a true patient advocate and walks through each step from the patient perspective, making adjustments along the way, with the best patient experience possible as the guiding principle. To lead this effort in the midst of COVID-19 and achieve a high level of patient and provider satisfaction only confirms that Seniorita is indeed, Employee of the Quarter." -Julie Driggers

Exemplary asset

"PEOPLE: Seniorita is always there to help attendings, fellows, admins and patients with their needs. SERVICE: Seniorita puts service in patient care above her own needs and always makes sure they can get the care they need. QUALITY: her dedication to the Pillars of Excellence are an example for her team members and anyone lucky enough to work with her. FINANCE: Seniorita has taken on the large task of converting clinic appointments at locations closed due to Coronavirus to virtual and Telehealth visits to continue patient care in this now uncertain time. GROWTH: Seniorita's continued dedication to patient care, physician services and the financial well-being of the division make her an exemplary asset to the Pulmonary, Critical Care, Allergy and Sleep Medicine Department." -Sophia Zimmermann

Wealth of knowledge and support

"I would like to nominate Seniorita Lucas for employee of the quarter. I have had the privilege of working with Seniorita in the division of Pulmonary and Critical Care. Seniorita is always full of knowledge, willing to help, and innovative in her ideas. As everyone at MUSC has had to make adjustments due to the COVID-19, crisis, Seniorita has been a wealth of knowledge and support. Working remotely, Seniorita is always the first to jump in with answers, concerns or ideas that will not only help her coworkers during this time, but also help our patients and the MUSC family. She has spearheaded the telemedicine practice in our division by helping to educate providers and coworkers on how to utilize MyChart for virtual visits, she is a constant communicator and even virtually, a breath of fresh air for so many during this time. Seniorita is someone we can count on, and someone that truly wants to help." -Maria Hoffman

Asset to our division

"Since coming on board with the Pulmonary division last May, I have been incredibly pleased with Seniorita's drive to learn her role, professionalism in every aspect of her position, flexibility to adapt to a constantly changing environment, and determination to be successful. She has quickly gained the respect of her colleagues and the faculty she supports which has undoubtedly secured her as an asset to our division. Seniorita hands down deserves this recognition and I try to tell her this regularly, but this will further show her how much our division and department value her contributions." -Mac Houck