Nurse practitioner and Project Access    NOW volunteer, Lisa L. Roessel, FNP-BC, found herself working in pulmonary medicine by "happy accident" and she has never looked back. As the Pulmonary Hypertension Program Coordinator for the Legacy Pulmonary Hypertension Center, Lisa specializes in treating pulmonary hypertension, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and smoking cessation.

Lisa regularly sees several Project Access NOW patients in her practice. She says, "Working with Project Access NOW patients is great. They are reliable, show up on time for their appointments, and are very grateful for the care they receive. "

Lisa believes the work that Project Access NOW does is important and gives the following example to illustrate how access to health care at the right time can prevent serious complications down the road.

The testing necessary to diagnose COPD is very expensive. Often patients without insurance cannot afford to pay, so they do not get tested. If the condition is never diagnosed, or diagnosed when it is in an advanced state, it becomes more difficult - and expensive - to treat. Catching COPD early is critical and prevention of flare-ups and repeated infections is key to managing the disease. Left undiagnosed, patients often end up in the emergency department and their condition worsens with every repeat incident they experience.

Lisa says she is "Personally very thankful for Project Access NOW because patients are getting access to preventive care, which not only reduces costs, but, more importantly, gets them care and treatment when they really need it."