A thank you to our health care angels

We recently said farewell to a patient who spent the last year at Keck Medicine of USC as she heads home to China. When the patient, 31, and her family were asked about their experience at our organization, they responded that while they had heard Los Angeles was the City of Angels, as far as they were concerned, all the angels reside at Keck Hospital of USC.

This beautiful sentiment encapsulates a key aspect of our patient care. We provide breakthrough medicine, but just as importantly, we meet patients' needs through kindness and compassion.

The patient was attending school in Los Angeles when she was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor that limited her ability to walk, eat or talk. Her parents flew in from China to take care of her, and were referred to Keck Medicine of USC.

Here, the patient underwent surgery to remove a tumor in her frontal lobe. She then received radiation with chemotherapy to treat the cancer and rehabilitation services to help her regain lost function on the right side of her body, along with a second surgery.

Throughout her 12 months of inpatient and outpatient care, her family saw firsthand the comprehensive, empathetic treatment provided by many teams — neurosurgery, neuro-oncology, radiation-oncology and rehabilitation — as well as by the USC Brain Tumor Center, which facilitated this multidisciplinary patient care.

Our care providers made the family feel valued and in the best possible hands. Brain tumor radiation oncologist Dr. Lindsay Hwang continually reached out to other departments and experts to coordinate the patient's treatments and appointments. And countless nurses, physician assistants, therapists and social workers took care of the patient's every need and provided her parents with essential information and resources.

The support didn't stop there. Because the family was far from home, with limited resources, our staff pitched in to provide the family with lunches, food vouchers, money for living expenses and a cell phone to call home. These efforts, born out of our staff's collective big heart, epitomize the best of Keck Medicine.

Keck Medicine leaders learned of this patient's story as part of a new initiative, Five-Star Leader Rounds, which gives those in leadership positions a chance to connect with patients and families. These leader rounds are woven into our?Five-Star Patient Experience, which strives to provide the best and most equitable experience for every colleague, patient and family member by providing safe and quality care, teamwork and trust, efficiency, communication and kind and affirming behavior.

We will continue to dedicate ourselves to the best patient experience at Keck Medicine, made possible by the many angels who work at our health system every day.