As Gary Enos talks into the receiver on his office phone, the cell phone sitting on his desk starts ringing.
He quickly answers the cell, asks the person to please hold and then returns to his first call.
Both are calls about his patients, soon to be discharged from Shands Jacksonville. Enos is their assigned case manager. He wants to make sure one patient has a good place to go when she's discharged. And he's helping ensure the other patient will get necessary medical equipment sent to his home.
This phone-juggling moment is repeated many times in a typical day for Enos.
He's rarely in one place for longer than five minutes. The only time Enos slows down long enough to focus on one thing is when he's standing in front of his patients. Then everything else comes to a stop as he listens to every word and watches body language.
He can tell you that one patient doesn't like turkey sandwiches. And on a different floor, another patient wants ketchup. So Enos is off to get her some.
It's not in Enos' job description to know his patients' dietary likes and dislikes. And he certainly isn't required to run down ketchup packets.
But Enos knows those little details make a difference to his patients. The more he learns about them, the better he can help them as they make their transitions out of the hospital. And he's the first to tell you that all of his coworkers work just as hard to help their patients.
As a registered nurse, Enos is strong clinically and understands his patients' needs, said Pamela Shiver, director of case management. She added: "He is funny and compassionate, and he looks for opportunities to make a difference."
He's always looking for a way to make his patients more comfortable and help them as they prepare to return home. For instance, Enos and a colleague run a clothes closet for patients in need.
"He doesn't choose the easy road when he has the option to do so," Shiver noted.
Enos's willingness to go further and do more has been noticed by more than just those he works with at Shands Jacksonville.
At the end of May, Enos took a patient to the airport so he could catch a United Airlines flight to Newark, N.J. The patient had been taken to Shands a few days earlier because of breathing issues while he was on a quick stop in Jacksonville on his way to Newark.
Enos said he would stay with the patient until boarding so he could switch the patient from the hospital oxygen tank to the mobile oxygen tank. But then the flight was delayed for five hours, and the United Airlines flight agents informed Enos about the delay, telling him he didn't have to stay and that they didn't have the authority to compensate him for his time or to pay for his parking.
But Enos stayed, not only helping his patient but also helping others who were waiting.
"He was calling passengers' families on his own cell phone to inform them of the delay," United Airlines workers said in a letter to Shands Jacksonville. "He made sure everyone was hydrated with drinks. His compassion for these passengers was a godsend."
While he waited, he made calls to help his other patients back at the hospital.
"Enos didn't have to stay. He didn't have to help everyone in the boarding area. He didn't have to spend his own money for parking. No nurse or case manager has ever done this much, either for a patient or for us, in the past," according to the letter.
That was nothing to Enos, just part of his job. A job he loves.