-
Linda Ellard, APRN-CNS, is formalizing a standing practice of looping in specialists early rather than waiting on lab results alone, a commitment drawn from her own hospitalist and infectious disease experience.
A standard built from one hard lesson
Oklahoma, USA, Sep 01, 2026, ZEX PR WIRE — Linda Ellard, APRN-CNS in Bixby, Oklahoma, is publicly committing to a practice she has followed since early in her career: when a patient’s case is uncertain, she consults other specialists while waiting on lab work instead of letting care sit idle.
Ellard says the standard traces back to a specific night on call. She asked a nurse to phone her back with lab results. The call never came. The patient ended up in surgery the next day.
“I learned to never delay care again,” Ellard said. “Now I consult other specialists while waiting for lab results, so a gap in communication cannot turn into a gap in treatment.”
She is now naming this as a formal part of how she practices, not just a private habit.
What the commitment covers
Ellard’s pledge has a few concrete parts:
-
Consulting a specialist as soon as a case looks complicated, rather than waiting for full lab confirmation.
-
Treating a missed callback as a trigger to follow up directly, not a reason to wait longer.
-
Documenting the reasoning behind early consults so other providers on a case can see the decision, not just the outcome.
This matters most in the settings where she works. As an infectious disease APRN since 2019, Ellard has worked alongside five different infectious disease attending providers, and she says that exposure shaped her sense of when a second opinion should come sooner rather than later. Her background as a hospitalist gave her a broad view of acute and general care, and regular contact with specialists outside her own training.
Why she is making it public
Ellard says patients and their families rarely see the coordination happening behind a diagnosis. Making the standard explicit is meant to give other providers, and patients, a clearer sense of what to expect from her practice.
“Patience and compassion for patients matter, but so does speed when a case turns,” Ellard said. “I want people to know that if something looks off, I am not going to sit on it.”
She also ties the commitment to her current work in wound care, which she has practiced since 2024. Wound cases can turn into infectious concerns quickly, and Ellard says the same early-consult standard applies there as much as it does in her infectious disease and hospitalist work.
How she measures whether it is working
Ellard says she checks herself against peer feedback and her own standards, rather than any single metric. She reviews cases where a consult happened early and asks whether it changed the outcome or just added a step.
“Feedback from peers and staying determined to hit my own goals is how I measure this,” she said. “If a specialist tells me the early call helped, that tells me more than a chart note does.”
She also credits her family as a steady source of motivation behind the discipline it takes to hold a standard like this over years of practice, particularly across roles that also include chronic pain management and addiction treatment, both since 2019.
What comes next
Ellard plans to keep this standard in place across all four areas of her current practice: infectious disease, chronic pain management, addiction treatment, and wound care. She says the goal is not a new program or a new document, but a consistent habit that patients and colleagues can count on regardless of which part of her practice they encounter.
“I try to plan goals in a realistic way and take them one at a time,” Ellard said. “This one is simple. Do not wait when a patient’s case calls for another set of eyes.”
About Linda Ellard
Linda Ellard is an APRN-CNS based in Bixby, Oklahoma. She has worked in infectious disease care since 2019, alongside ongoing practice in chronic pain management, addiction treatment, and wound care. She began her nursing career in Tulsa in 2009, earned her APRN credential by 2017, and holds a BSN and MSN from OU Tulsa.
Disclaimer: The views, suggestions, and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. No The Money Goals journalist was involved in the writing and production of this article.