Staying out of the hospital with pneumonia

In late March, Eugene Schellenberger came to Atracare Walk-In in Lewes because he wasn’t feeling well.

Kara Back, FNP, was working that day and signed up to take him as a patient.

Gene, as he goes by, said he wasn’t feeling too well and he had some fevers. He was worried it might be COVID or something else but after a chest X-ray and several rounds of testing for various transmissible diseases, there was no flu, COVID, or RSV, but the chest X-ray looked concerning.

Kara talked over the results with Gene and said she was concerned, but thought they could treat his pneumonia out of the hospital. Kara would know what requires a hospital stay too since she spent five years as an ICU nurse. During her experience in the ICU, she has seen just about everything and knows pneumonia pretty well.

Kara designed a care plan and prescribed a course of steroids and antibiotics in order to help clear the infection and make Gene feel better as soon as possible. “Most importantly, we wanted to keep him out of the hospital,” Kara said. “They have enough really sick patients, so whenever we can manage someone as an outpatient it puts less of a burden on the healthcare system.”

It turns out that her diagnosis was spot-on, and Gene recognized this. Gene admitted that his own daughter is a nurse practitioner and after double-checking everything that Kara did, Gene said that she was spot-on with her diagnosis.

Gene was so grateful. The next week he surprised everyone by returning with candy for the staff and flowers for Kara. We were all humbled and touched by his pouring of gratitude.

Patients like Gene make the job worthwhile. Those people who need and appreciate the care, that is what keeps us working hard. Thank you, Gene, for taking the time to make the day of everyone at Atracare.

Atracare is a full-service medical office that operates exclusively in Sussex County. Known for being easy to access and being able to see patients quickly, Atracare’s walk-in clinics in Ocean View and Lewes, are open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., daily. To make an appointment, text 302-754-5697 for the Ocean View clinic or 302–517-1385 for Lewes or go to atracare.com.