For me, the end of the year is a time for looking back. It’s a time for celebrating accomplishments and savoring success stories, recognizing challenges and reflecting on the journey of the past 12 months.
At St. Charles, any reflection on 2021 must begin with the COVID-19 pandemic. From the rollout of a vaccine to a major fall surge fueled by the Delta variant, every step of the past year has been taken in the shadow of this deadly virus.
We are not finished in our battle against COVID-19, but we have made significant progress toward a new normal. We helped set up and staff a mass community vaccination clinic in Redmond that, by all accounts, ran smoothly and efficiently. (A parade of volunteers certainly helped.) We introduced a promising new treatment that has kept many COVID-positive people out of the hospital. We set up drive-thru COVID-19 testing and a pediatric COVID-19 vaccination clinic. And, of course, we have cared for right around 2,600 patients with COVID-19 at our Bend hospital. There are 24 there as I write this, including three in the Intensive Care Unit.
Our caregivers did all of that while also dealing with unprecedented patient volume and capacity issues at our hospitals – issues caused not just by COVID, but by a confluence of factors.
I am so incredibly proud of our St. Charles caregivers for their hard work and dedication to the communities we serve – always, but especially over the past two years. Without them and their tireless efforts, none of the above could have been possible. It is my honor to lead this organization.
And I must take a moment to thank our friends in the Oregon National Guard, as well as a fleet of traveling nurses, for coming to Central Oregon to support us in a time of great need. They made a huge difference, and we are forever grateful for their help.
Of course, St. Charles is not just a COVID-19 response operation. It is a robust and wide-ranging health system that covers an area approximately the size of South Carolina and serves an array of very different people with a wide range of health care needs. So, we cannot focus solely on COVID-19. Every day, we must be making progress on a number of different fronts, and we did that, too.
For example, we expanded the availability of industry-standard 3D mammograms to Jefferson County, giving women in Madras and Warm Springs better care that’s closer to home. And thanks to state-of-the-art technology, we launched a virtual reality training program for our caregivers and made major improvements to the way we treat breast cancer.
We supported our community partners in many different ways: A donation to help buy new ambulances for Crook County. A collaborative project to study the effect of shift work on the health of Deschutes County sheriff’s officers. A major contribution to Partners in Care’s push to build a new hospice facility in the region. We provided nearly $50,000 to various organizations in the area that are working to prevent the misuse of alcohol, which is our current community benefit priority. And through the St. Charles Foundation, we gave more than $65,000 in grants to local schools, cities and nonprofit organizations that are helping to meet the critical needs of individuals and families and working to prevent or end homelessness and break the cycle of poverty.
Rest assured, that is just a sliver of the good work happening across St. Charles Health System, in Bend, La Pine, Madras, Prineville, Redmond, Sisters and points beyond and in between. Our caregivers are out there every day, working hard to help improve the health and the lives of people in our community.
Again, I am incredibly proud of them and their work. And I thank you for your partnership in our primary goal: Creating America’s healthiest community, together.
I hope you have a healthy, happy 2022.
Sincerely,
Joe
