Day: December 17, 2020

In this Story from the Front Line, Dr. Teda Arunrut tells us about the inspirational Dr. Wakim.   Every morning, I go to work earlier than usual to disinfect my work area and huddle with my team. We discuss how to best to care for our children and families safely in light of the latest guidelines for the day. While feelings of anxiety and uncertainty often linger in me, my fellow pediatrician and immunology specialist Dr. Mary Wakim never ceases to be a source of inspiration. A pediatrician, humanist and scientist, Dr. Wakim comes ready to tackle the day with gusto. While she is aware of the risks that healthcare workers face, Dr. Wakim's compassion never waivers. She views each patient encounter as the chance to heal, to treat the body as well as the mind and spirit. Dr. Wakim provides guidance to...

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One of the challenges during this pandemic is trying to take a holistic approach to care. Some of our most vulnerable community members are being impacted. NEVHC is not only a health care provider but also a source of information for these patients, connecting them to resources that address not only their physical health but also factors like their mental wellbeing and food security.   We've been doing drive-thru testing for about two or three weeks, but, before that started, we were seeing patients in their cars starting in March. One of our first patients that we did a car assessment for came in with all the symptoms of COVID-19, and she had her partner and children all with her in her car. It turned out that she could not self-isolate because they were living out of their car. We knew that the coronavirus test wasn't going to be...

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As the Program Manager for Emergency Management and the Corporate Safety Officer for NEVHC, my role is to ensure that we have plans in place to respond to emergencies and make sure that all staff, patients and visitors are safe. The biggest challenge with COVID-19 is that everything was so new. We had plans in place for infectious disease outbreak, however COVID-19 was much more complex and not something that we could have 100% been prepared for. In the beginning, the guidelines were changing daily, and it was difficult to really have a solid plan in place to respond to COVD-19. After working with other amazing staff members, we were able to provide guidelines to staff to respond.  From the safety perspective, in the beginning, finding appropriate...

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