Living out ‘Servant’s Heart; Owner’s Mind’

For nearly a year now, American healthcare workers have seen many stages of the COVID-19 virus: waves of the deadly infection; patterns of few patients at all in their hospitals, then packed emergency departments.

Clinicians, like non-healthcare workers, have masked up, washed their hands a thousand extra times, avoided fun activities and family gatherings, and simply conducted life differently in 2020. In some cases, they’ve stayed completely away from their own immediate families, in hopes of not inadvertently spreading the dangerous disease to the people they love most.

And yet, clinicians keep giving more.

A few weeks ago, a call was put out to USACS clinicians to ramp up staffing at a partner Adventist HealthCare site in Takoma Park, Maryland – a facility that was designated as one of three ‘overflow’ sites by Maryland Governor Larry Hogan. It has been operational since April, but needs to be running at full capacity now. When fully operational, it will feature an outpatient infusion center for COVID patients, as well as have 125 inpatient beds and a 16-bed Intensive Care Unit.

“The response has been phenomenal,” said IAC System Director Amit Kalaria, one of several who has worked tirelessly to get the facility up and running. “We’ve received 75 applications already just from USACS physicians and APPs alone. They will get their emergency credentials and be on their way. In April, we were managing the coronavirus with local providers from the regional area, but we’ve surpassed that now.”

The number of patients – especially those who need hospitalization – keeps growing. Adventist HealthCare has stepped in to deliver top tier healthcare throughout the region and added several more hospitals this year; and its US Acute Care Solutions partner has grown right along with it. USACS is now the sole Integrated Acute Care (IAC) system solution to all three Adventist HealthCare hospitals in Maryland.

“It’s been a busy few weeks, with boots on the ground,” said Dr. Kalaria. “We’re doing everything we can to help support the patients and the community during this difficult time.”