In honor of Susie Whorley
If Susie Whorley didn’t enter the health services profession, she could’ve been a private detective or maybe even a comedian.
“I’m like a little private investigator trying to piece together a patient’s history so the doctor has complete information,” she says. “Patients might not remember everything. They might have gone to six different hospitals in three states. Paper records, slides, tissue samples, scans, images. It’s my job to track all that down for the doctors. I’m a paper shuffler; we run the world, you know.”
She’s been at UNC for 17 years now, and has been known to show her deep concern for patients and their families through the use of humor.
“I truly believe I can make a difference; that I can change the way a patient experiences UNC Hospital because when you can make a cancer patient laugh, you know you’ve done something.”
In 2006, she was honored with an Oncology Clinical Services Excellence Award, and plans to keep on meeting the needs of patients for many years.
“I’m a lifer,” she says. “I’ve declined promotions because the new job would’ve taken me away from the patients. I can tell you, most people who work here don’t do it for the money. They do it because of a deep sense of calling and purpose.”