When the pain gets a little too sharp or the needles a little too unnerving, some hospital patients can turn to an unexpected ally: live music.
Kaiser Permanente is so pleased with the difference that one volunteer harpist has made that it is putting out the call for more musicians to perform in patients' rooms and in hospital gathering spots.
"We're excited about what this can do," said Keith Hoerman, a Kaiser continuity of care director who has noticed entire hospital units quieting down when harpist Elizabeth Wendt passes through.
A few well-played notes can ease a great deal of stress, for doctors and nurses as well as for patients and their visitors, Hoerman said.
Kaiser would like to find enough volunteer performers to bring music regularly to every inpatient area of two hospitals, one in Roseville and the other on Morse Avenue in Sacramento.
For patients' rooms, the medical system is looking for people like Wendt, who have gotten some training in how to match their music to a patient's needs, and how to fit comfortably into clinical settings.
For more public areas, Kaiser is just looking for ability and a willingness to share, said Connie Johnstone, who runs the spiritual care program for the two Kaiser hospitals.
"Our goal is to have a healing environment," she said. Johnstone can hardly walk through a hallway at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Roseville without pointing out where she hopes a meditative garden will grow, or where soothing concerts could be held.
On Friday, she set up a meeting room with three harpists who played and talked to hospital workers about ways to meld music and medicine.
Matching the rhythm of a gasping breath, a musician can first get in sync with a patient and then slow down, subtly encouraging the breathing to slow, too, said Leslie Williams, who has played in hospitals for three years.
Confronted by an agitated patient with dementia, a musician can strum an old, familiar tune that will calm a listener who is beyond the reach of words.
Williams, a Fair Oaks harpist, helps train other players through the Music for Healing and Transitions program, one of several groups that certifies singers and instrumentalists to perform in health care settings.
It is the same program that certified Wendt, who in addition to her volunteering, teaches at a Rocklin Montessori school.
Wendt was introduced to Kaiser counselors, nurses and others last week as the first music coordinator for the Roseville branch of the new "Healing Music Program."
Many already knew her, including nurse Joanne Imwalle, who specializes in placing special intravenous lines deep within a patient's body.
While the peripherally inserted central catheters, or PICCs, are not painful, getting one can seem like an ominous process, with sterile drapes, needles and a big imaging machine.
For one patient who needed a PICC but had had trouble during past procedures, music made a difference.
"Elizabeth was so sweet," Imwalle told the group. "She played during all my setup. She played and played" for 45 minutes, maybe more.
"It was lovely, and the patient was so relaxed. … I got the PICC line right in and was done."
Wendt has been visiting the Roseville hospital once a week, guided by nurses to the bedsides of those most likely to benefit because of pain, anxiety or other issues that lessen with the sound of music.
Before Friday's meeting, she stopped briefly by the room of Hazel Simmons, 68, of Roseville, whose right hip had been replaced the day before.
Simmons smiled dreamily, her eyes closed as harp notes rose and fell, before pronouncing the music "beautiful, absolutely beautiful."
She figured it ought to help anyone who was hurting.
Call The Bee's Carrie Peyton Dahlberg, (916) 321-1086.
