“Is this your field hospital?”
This question is the reason I wear a tie to all our COVID testing events. I want people to know where they can direct complaints or concerns. I walked over to the gentleman who asked the question and steeled myself for “constructive feedback.”
It has been six months of almost exclusively COVID. Since mid-winter and my taking the role of Hospital Incident Command’s “Community Liaison,” the population health job has taken on a very specific focus as COVID has become the latest of the threats to the health for our community.
We started in early March by planning for hospital COVID testing and working with community health on food distribution after the schools closed and many of the children in the community lost access to several of their daily meals. By mid-month, a group of us from the two largest medical systems in our city met with the State Health Department and were directed to construct and operate a FEMA field hospital in the convention center. Continue reading