San Juan Regional Health

San Juan Regional Medical Center is thrilled to announce that Rebekah French, DNP, FNP-C, is being honored by the New Mexico Hospital Association with the Distinguished Service in Healthcare recognition.

Rebekah, a Family Nurse Practitioner at San Juan Health Partners Family Medicine in Aztec, demonstrated incredible commitment to serving the Four Corners community during the pandemic by coming up with new ways to care for patients. She had the foresight to reach out to Vanderbilt University to adapt their Care Model to meet our patients’ needs, initiating the COVID to Home (C2H) program. This clinic coordinated care and provided close monitoring to eligible COVID-19 patients who were either discharged home for self-isolation or did not need hospitalization through telemedicine visits. Rebekah and the team of providers, nurses, medical assistants and customer service representatives at San Juan Health Partners clinics reached out to patients in the program through daily or every other day tele-health visits, which kept many COVID patients out of the hospital during a time when beds were at a scarcity. In addition, the program:

• Coordinated safe and effective transfer to a higher level of care when indicated
• Decreased the number of COVID-19 related visits to Urgent Care and the Emergency Department
• Decreased the number of admitted patients to the hospital secondary to safe and effective care at home
• Decreased healthcare worker exposure to COVID-19 
• Conserved personal protective equipment (PPE) at a critical time

“Rebekah embodies the essence of what it means to be a healthcare professional. Her passion, care and commitment to saving lives has touched the hearts of her community and her colleagues,” said Jason Rounds, President and CEO of San Juan Regional Medical Center.

                Not only was the program a successful way to optimize care when resources were low, it was also comforting for patients at home with COVID to know that a medical provider was following up and keeping in touch with them. They knew they were not alone. Help was just a phone call or video visit away.

“This recognition is an honor, but it would not have been made possible without the amazing team of healthcare staff that came together to make it possible,” Rebekah said. “Our strength was tested when the fiction of pandemics seen in movies became a traumatic reality. We did not know how much this innovative program would impact us and the community during COVID-19, and I am so grateful that this program was available to help the community during uncertain times. There is a special place in my heart for all those, especially our coworkers, who lost their lives from COVID-19. We need to continue learning from these lessons so we can have better responses in the future.”

Rebekah French, front row far left, joins with fellow recipients of the Distinguished Service in Healthcare Award at the New Mexico Hospital