Pictured: Jenell Lazarony, center, visited Lorrae and Lewis Moon at their Yampa Valley Fiberworks operation.

Want to hear other incredible patient stories like Lewis’s? Don’t miss a beat when you sign up for our Living Well e-newsletter here.

Jenell Lazarony, Care Coordinator

One day in April of 2020, Lewis Moon was operating a piece of equipment at his Craig wool mill when the second finger on his right hand got caught.

Lewis is no stranger to hard work or machinery. He’d been a heavy-equipment operator his whole life, and as owner and operator of Yampa Valley Fiberworks since 2013 along with his wife, Lorrae, he’d been running pickers, carders, pin drafters, spinners and skeiners for years without incident.

But on this day, the machine sliced off his finger down to the first knuckle.

“Lorrae loaded me up and took me to the ER at Memorial Regional,” Lewis said. They fixed him up, for the time being, then a few days later he had surgery to secure the skin and tissues at the end of the stump.

And then?

“And then I had a huge hospital bill,” he said.

The then 60-year-old set up a payment plan with MRH. But he and Lorrae struggled with the billing system. “The statements were confusing,” he said. “Every time I talked to someone, the amounts would be different. I felt totally lost.”

Fortunately, that’s when his daughter-in-law, who works at MRH Rapid Care, told Lewis about Jenell.

What Is Care Coordination?

Jenell Lazarony is MRH’s Care Coordinator. It’s her job to help MRH patients with anything they need to support their well-being.

“Care coordination is a lot of things,” she said. “I do a little of everything. I help patients with food insecurity, housing, transportation, disabilities, self-sufficiency, utilities assistance, Medicaid or healthcare applications, domestic violence—whatever help they need to solve problems affecting their physical and mental health.”

Jenell is well-connected with the many social-service agencies and programs in Moffat County. When an MRH patient or family needs help of any kind, she knows who to contact and how to access the support. This sometimes also includes state or national resources, such as financial-support programs for needed medical equipment, hearing aids, eyeglasses, prescriptions and more.

“People are surprised to learn how many resources we have locally,” Jenell said. “We’re a small community, but when I moved here from Denver, I was so impressed at the number of resources here. It blew me away.”

Instead of simply talking to patients by phone and sending them links to pertinent websites, Jenell often meets with patients in person—at their homes or a convenient location, such as the clinic—and then helps them complete any needed paperwork and follow-through. “I try to close the loop when I work with somebody,” she said.

In her two years so far as Care Coordinator, Jenell has helped hundreds of patients and families. “Sometimes it’s as simple as assisting them with one referral or application, and sometimes it’s an ongoing relationship,” she said.

Anyone can call Jenell for assistance. Financial need is not a criterion, although many of the programs she connects people to offer need-based support. Because she’s so knowledgeable and well-connected, she almost always knows the best ways to tackle any problem.

“I try to connect people with the right available resources for their situations so that their physical, mental and social needs are met,” she said. “Nothing surprises me. And no matter what’s going on, I meet people where they’re at.”

All MRH Care Coordination services are free and confidential. Care Coordination is part of the health system’s Population Health Department.

Though it’s six-days-a-week, ten-plus-hours-a-day work, Lewis and Lorrae are happy to be able to continue their wool-milling operation. “We take in fiber from customers all over the United States—from sheep, alpaca, yaks, llamas, buffalo and more—and do all-natural, custom milling,” he said. In other words, they turn raw sheared fiber into beautifully spun yarn and ship the finished skeins back to the owners.

When they’re not working, they enjoy spending time with their family who live nearby—two sons and daughters-in-law and five grandchildren. A third son and his family recently moved to Indiana. Lewis is also a member of the Moffat County Search and Rescue team and in the winter, loves to snowmobile.

“The Moons are some of the nicest people I have met and been able to serve,” Jenell said. “They are decent, honest people, and I’m honored to help them.”