From the Heart: Here comes the sun (doo doo doo doo)

Tuesday, December 29, 2020 | Vol. 1, No. 11

Here comes the sun (doo doo doo doo)

Honest to goodness, given the dumpster fire that 2020 has turned out to be, even we eternal optimists at St. Tammany Health System have had trouble accentuating the positive, eliminating the negative and all that other stuff Bing Crosby crooned about.

But lately, we’ve seen more smiles – mixed in with a few exhausted tears – than we’ve seen in some time.

So, what changed? The COVID-19 vaccine arrived, and one of the chief side effects we’ve seen so far has been, in the words of Dr. Avita Adhvaryu, “extreme elation.”

In fact, we decided to go ahead and turn over this space to our healthcare heroes who have been working so hard and so long since the pandemic first reached our hospital in mid-March.

Here’s what they had to say about the vaccine and the welcome dose of hope it has delivered:

STHS Hospitalist Dr. Marcus Wallace: “I’ve heard words like ‘game-changer’ when people talk about the vaccine. My word is ‘no-brainer.’ Everybody should get it.”

Emergency Department Navigator Darla Steadman: “I think, where would I be had my grandparents not taken the smallpox vaccine? I am blessed to have a vaccine that did not take years to develop. I am blessed to be healthy enough to stand in line to receive it.”

Dr. Christopher Foret, of the St. Tammany Physicians Network Folsom clinic: “I’m doing this for all the people who made sacrifices to make us as healthcare providers safe. I’m doing it for my family. I’m doing it for my patients. And I’m doing it for those 7,000 Louisiana residents who didn’t get the opportunity.”

Amy Lomzenski Wade, director of STHS’s Med-Surg Unit: “Not only do I want to protect myself and others, but I also hope to be a part of the solution to this pandemic. We have to trust in science! I’ve read all of the CDC information; I’m not listening to fake news. … It’s worth the ‘shot’ in hopes to move on with living our lives like normal.”

Angela L. Williams-Reed, RN: “I got the vaccine because it’s my duty to participate in helping others. I’m doing it for my co-workers, and I’m doing it for my patients. I’m very optimistic that this is going to get us out of this darkness we’ve been living under and move us to a better, brighter future.”

Dr. Mike Hill, STHS infectious disease specialist: “This is the beginning of the end of the pandemic.”

Have a happy and healthy new year, everyone.

To a COVID-free 2021

Vaccines aren’t the only thing our healthcare heroes are getting. As STHS President and CEO Joan Coffman reveals in her monthly video address, they’re also getting some much-deserved recognition, with “frontline workers” being named to the top spot on Modern Healthcare’s annual list of the 100 most influential people in healthcare.

STHS plays Santa to 41 families

It wasn’t exactly a sleigh and eight tiny reindeer. Instead, it was a rented truck and a handful of St. Tammany Health System employees.

But for 41 Northshore families, it should prove to be close enough.

As part of an ongoing holiday tradition, the health system recently dropped off two truckloads of wrapped gifts – all purchased with money donated by STHS colleagues – to the Department of Children and Family Services in Covington for distribution to local families in need.

Time capsule preserves the present

Fifty years from now, when the nurses of 2070 reflect on the history of their profession, they won’t have to work hard to find out what things were like in 2020. They’ll just have to pop open a time capsule being stashed in a glassed-in enclosure built into the health system’s nearly complete new patient tower.

‘A no-brainer’

Dr. Marcus Wallace has heard the skeptics. He’s seen the headlines about lingering mistrust regarding the COVID-19 vaccine. But, as an STHS hospitalist, he’s also a man of science and reason, which is why he was so eager to lead by example, becoming one of the first people in the country to receive the vaccine.

Simply the best. Still.

For the 10th grading period in a row, St. Tammany Health System has received an A for patient safety from the Leapfrog Group, making it one of only 29 hospitals nationally to have earned an A in every grading period – which occur every fall and spring – since the inception of the program in 2012.

Signs of the times

Call it a sign of progress. A really, really BIG sign of progress. Crews with Sign Lite installed a number of illuminated signs featuring St. Tammany Health System’s new double-hearts logo – some measuring a whopping 9 feet in diameter – outside its Covington hospital recently, with more to come.

St. Tammany Health System