We’re grateful to have amazing staff members who are dedicated to improving the standard of care for all women. Today, we want you to meet two team members who play a vital role in providing FEMM’s excellent patient care support.
Leanne Jarvis, Patient Care Coordinator
What do you do as a patient care coordinator?
I serve as a liaison between the patient and FEMM’s care team. We want to ensure that we’re offering women the highest standard of reproductive care, and to be truly patient centered. We know that oftentimes in the medical system, patients can feel like a number or like there’s not a lot of time for them. A significant number of patients and aspects of their care plans can fall through the cracks.
In my role, I help inform patients, walk through care plans with them, and answer questions when it comes to their labs, their medications, or anything else. I help troubleshoot any specific area that they may be struggling with. Whether a patient is reaching out to us or a provider identifies a patient who might need extra support, I reach out to them and provide that.
We understand that sometimes FEMM’s form of care might be more intensive and extensive than what a patient was previously used to. Some of our labs or medications might seem new to the patient. How to take a medication or how to properly complete a lab, the timing of it—those are all things that I help walk our patients through.
What’s one of the most common challenges you face in your role?
One of the biggest challenges is that we’re operating within a system that frequently has underserved women. Women are coming to FEMM already feeling frustrated or disappointed with the type of care they’ve previously received. Or they have preconceived notions of what can be done for them because they’ve been told, “Nothing can be done for you.”
I think because of that, one challenge that we face here at FEMM is that women come to us, one, already frustrated, and two, maybe with a limited mindset of what can be done.
Fertility and reproductive health are such fragile grounds and a very sensitive area. We want to honor women and couples in that journey. But also, our providers ask for their patience and trust. We need to give treatment plans time, and it’s often not a quick fix. And so that’s where our patients need to have the willingness to do all the tests and continue to see our doctors for follow ups.
The goal of my role is to ensure that our patients are really being seen through that whole process because we do recognize that our treatment plans do take time.
What’s your favorite part of the job?
Getting to help women, no matter how small or big the issue—whether it’s helping schedule an appointment, troubleshooting something specific when it comes to where they are in their cycle, or walking them through how to time an ultrasound or a lab test. I love being that person of support and knowing that, in some small way, I can be helpful on their journey.
Sydney Gardner, Medical Assistant
What part of your job energizes you the most?
I find this work to be fascinating and really grounding. It makes you realize how uniquely we’re all really created and how one person’s situation is very much individual to them, and what works for them maybe doesn’t work for everyone else.
Before I worked for FEMM, I was one of their patients. I’ve had success in my health journey thanks to FEMM. Now, it energizes me to see how much of an impact our work makes on other people. It’s nice to connect with patients and be able to empathize with what they’re going through. It’s also really exciting to watch families grow and to celebrate patients’ health milestones, whether that’s achieving a healthy ovulation or committing to an exercise routine.
What makes FEMM stand out from both a scientific and clinical perspective?
I would say probably as a whole, the amount of time spent with each FEMM patient feels like a really big difference. The time we allot for each provider to sit down, get to know the patient, their background, review their records, and answer all their questions is more than a lot of traditional clinics.
I think this results in the patient feeling more understood, confident in their care plan, maybe a little bit more education. I would also say FEMM stands out for all the research involved in formulating our protocols and testing those things out. And also the way our providers consult one another on these cases to make sure that we’re tag teaming all the great minds and making sure we’re looking at things from all different angles.
Another area that’s different from standard care is the complexity and intentionality of FEMM’s testing. We try to home in on the root cause of the patient’s concerns and tailor their lab orders and imaging orders to the specifics of what the patient is experiencing.
What’s one myth about reproductive health you wish would go away?
A lot comes to mind! But I think the biggest thing is that if you’re struggling with fertility issues, IVF or IUI is not your only option. If someone told you that’s your only option and you’ve not been successful on your own in the past, root cause medicine can be life changing.
FEMM provides the resources to do a deep dive into what’s going on beneath the surface and address underlying issues—like insulin resistance for instance—that might be wrecking your hormones.
You know that phrase, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”?
When we provide you with education about your hormones and what’s going on in your body, we’re teaching you to fish in a sense. Then, ideally, you can not only achieve a healthy pregnancy but also continue to be successful in the future and keep practicing a healthy lifestyle.
