Brooke came to my rescue with compassion, support, and understanding.

I had been scheduled with a specialist, and my UPMC Hamot Doctor had told me his office would forward my records and tests that had been done here at Hamot. I called and confirmed with his office that this would happen. The day before my specialist appointment, I decided to call and make sure that my records had been sent.

The new doctor’s office had not received any of my records, and the UPMC office showed no record of sending. So, I started to panic. I was afraid of wasting the specialist’s time with none of my records/tests and, of course, costing me more healthcare costs, which I had already been accumulating a lot of.

So, I started calling the UPMC Hamot records department and decided I needed to leave work early to go to UPMC Hamot in person. The records office was very polite, but they were unable to make disks or “push” my images to my specialist.

I got sent to numerous places in the hospital looking for help, including radiology, records, and the heart cath lab. Finally, I came across Brooke Nicolia (and Erin G.). She was so helpful and supportive. By this point, I was actually in tears due to all the frustration.

Brooke talked to me to identify the problem and reassured me she could help. Sure enough, Brooke was able to push my test records through to my specialist.

I was so relieved and thankful that Brooke went out of her way to help me, a person in distress, when my original doctor had dropped the ball and not followed through with sending my records as they had promised. And she was successful! My faith in humanity (and UPMC) is back.

Thank you, Brooke Nicolia!

(P.S. I am a stage 4 cancer person with heart issues, so I've been around hospitals a lot lately and rely on several key UPMC doctors.)