Neurodiagnostics and Respiratory Therapy Manager Jeremy Arnold, BSHA, RRT, never thought he would...
Shannon Krebs, RN, CEN, Nurse Manager at Malbis Freestanding Emergency Department in Alabama, has been helping care for patients since she was a child.
“When all the kids in my cul-de-sac would ride bikes together and someone fell off, I would always walk them home and patch them up with band-aids.”
That drive pushed Shannon to join the U.S. Navy where she served for six years, starting as a hospital corpsman before becoming a pharmacy tech and eventually an aviation medical tech. As a medical tech, she would help keep medical records and perform flight physicals for the Blue Angels and NASA.
After several years serving her country, Shannon pursued a new challenge: motherhood. For six years Shannon stayed home raising her children before deciding to jump back into the medical field, where she finished her nursing license and eventually found her way to the ER.
She now leads a team in a Freestanding Emergency Department where every day brings new challenges, including unexpected deliveries.
“We certainly don’t like to have babies born in an emergency setting, especially in a freestanding facility where you don’t have a hospital connected. Unfortunately, we had a precipitous birth, and a baby at 26 weeks was born here,” Shannon said. “Thankfully, we had a positive result, but as we moved the newborn to one of our baby warmers, we noticed the hydraulics on the baby warmer was leaking. We were able to move the baby to another device, but we needed a new replacement fast.”
She contacted USME's Charlie Dykes and told him about their situation.
“Within an hour Charlie helped locate the device and get it to us in less than 24 hours, which was unheard of for us. There was no delay in care and just all-around excellent customer service,” Shannon said. “With the USME system, I felt that our department’s needs came first. It all felt so easy and streamlined, it was like that piece of equipment was never even missing.”
For her life’s work caring for patients in need, USME is pleased to support Shannon’s life-saving mission and honor her as March’s Healthcare Hero.
