2019 Annual Report

2019 ANNUAL REPORT Dear Friends, In 2018, I decided to uproot my family from Wisconsin to Sandusky, Ohio - the “Roller Coaster Capital of the World.” Little did I know what a roller coaster of a ride our entire world would endure during these past months. On December 31, 2019, Firelands Regional Health System and Cedar Fair co-hosted the Celebration 2020 New Year’s Eve Gala to commemorate the opening of the Lee C. Jewett Sports Medicine Center and Cedar Point Sports Center. The tagline for the Celebration 2020 event was “A Year Like No Other.” Quite prophetic, wouldn’t you say? It was an incredible celebration, with more than 500 members of our community enjoying the venue and looking forward to the promise of a new year. Little did we know then how important the memory of human connection and joy would be at this point in time! There is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused an enormous burden on our system of care. I can confidently report that Firelands rose to the preparedness challenge and positioned ourselves well to provide the best clinical care for our patients while also protecting our associates at a very high level. As the coronavirus pandemic continues to wreak havoc around the world, donors and area organizations have been a bright spot in our community. The immediate response and outpouring of donations from individuals and organizations to help our caregivers have the supplies and support they need to stay healthy and care for our patients continue to be heartwarming. With that said, the toll on the Health System has been tremendous. Through all these challenges, we continue to provide quality, compassionate care, and enhance our services. Like many other businesses, we have begun to increase our volume (much of it being pent up demand), but we also realize that we may not reach consistent pre-COVID-19 volume in many areas until a vaccine becomes available. Public health experts are suggesting that a vaccine may not be widely available to our population until 2021. Firelands remains a financially stable health care system. That said, it is essential to remember that one of the reasons we are in such a solid position is due to YOU, our donors. Additionally, Firelands has made very sound clinical and financial decisions over the past decades. Thank you all for your part in this. With every crisis comes opportunity, and I have no doubt we will be stronger together once we are through this challenging time. Thank you again for your support and continued contributions to ensure we can provide the quality care our community needs and deserves! With gratitude, Jeremy Normington-Slay President and CEO Firelands Regional Health System 2019 Annual Report 3 2 2019 Annual Report 2019 Annual Report 3 table of contents 6 – 7 Firelands Constructs Special COVID-19 Unit 8 – 9 Firelands Welcomes New Chief Medical Officer 10 –13 Daniel Rice: The Story Of A COVID-19 Survivor 14 – 17 You Are Our Heroes! 18 –19 Firelands Implements The Hospital Incident Command System 20 – 21 New MRI Enhances Patient Comfort, Eases Anxiety 22 – 25 The “Caddyshack” Open Celebrates 10 Years of Fun and Fundraising 26 – 31 Physician Spotlight 32 – 33 Why We Give – The Thomas M. Routh Heart Fund 34 – 42 Generous Benefactors 43 – 44 Guardian Angel Donors 44 Tributes and Pavers 45 Doctors’ Day Donors 46 – 47 Memorial Gift Donors 48 Dedicated Volunteers 49 – 50 The MJ Stauffer Annual Giving Society 51 – 52 The Foundation for Firelands Legacy Society 53 2019 Community Benefit 54 – 55 2019 Financial Statement Donors celebrate New Year’s Eve 2019 at the Lee C. Jewett Sports Medicine Center and Cedar Point Sports Center. 4 2019 Annual Report 2019 Annual Report 5 Renovation of the unit began on March 15th. Five days later, the first suspected COVID-19 patient was admitted. “Having a dedicated COVID unit gives us the ability to contain COVID patients in one area safely and protect other patients and our medical teams. The staff dedicated to the isolation unit FIRELANDS can focus on the care and treatment of those sickest with COVID-19,”says Susan Behrens, MSN, RN, director of critical & progressive care. “Initially, the care team in the COVID unit was nervous and anxious. You could see the apprehension CONSTRUCTS on their faces. Since then, we all feel safer - maybe even SPECIAL safer than anywhere else because we are so protected.” The importance of the specialized unit COVID-19 was demonstrated in May when several Ohio Veterans Home residents and staff were infected with COVID-19 and required UNIT hospitalization. Firelands team members worked closely with the Ohio Veterans Home staff and members of the Erie When the highly contagious coronavirus spread to the County Health Department to contain United States in January 2020 and began infecting the virus and treat those affected. an alarming number of people, hospitals across the country were faced with the unexpected challenge of how to safely care for those most severely affected. As Thanks to a massive group effort, the former intensive care unit one of the area’s largest medical facilities, Firelands at Firelands, which lay idle for ten years, was renovated into a Regional Medical Center acted quickly to develop a COVID-19 acute care unit in five days. This huge undertaking required converting the ventilation system in the unit from plan to cope with the surging pandemic. A key feature a positive air pressure environment to a negative air pressure environment. The negative air pressure system prevents air of that plan was to designate a special COVID-19 from leaving an isolated area, trapping potentially harmful and acute care unit where coronavirus patients could infectious particles, protecting people outside the space from exposure. “We sealed the unit’s floors, ceilings, walls, and be safely treated and healthcare workers protected. windows to create a secure environment from other hospital areas. We added airflow monitors to alert staff should there Plant Operations putting the final touches of be a loss of negative air in relationship to the main corridor,” flooring on the rapidly-converted 4 West Unit. explains Charlie Kanthak, director of facilities and plant operations at Firelands Regional Health System, An anteroom with a negative air system was created as an additional layer of infection control. Staff entering and exiting the isolation unit pass through the anteroom to put on gowns and protective equipment, remove contaminated clothing and equipment, and disinfect before stepping into the hospital’s general space. The installation of computer systems and the addition of equipment and supplies completed the functionality of the space. 6 2019 Annual Report 2019 Annual Report 7 have a physician communicating with a physician in On January 6, 2020, Dr. Campbell officially stepped difficult conversations around health care.” Jeremy added, into his role as a part-time CMO, maintaining his duties “I was looking for a physician who would work as a liaison as an emergency room physician. and advocate for our medical staff. I also felt it important “I felt the need to be as informed as possible about to add a physician’s voice to the administration’s top COVID-19 since people were looking to me for advice. I did strategic decisions.” what most physicians do and turned to reliable sources of FIRELANDS When the CMO position was posted, Dr. Campbell had information. I read reputable journals, listened to veterans no intention of applying for the job. “I had enough on my in the medical field whom I have trusted in the past, and plate and was content with my duties as an emergency room gathered information from the medical world, not from cable physician and medical director of emergency services. I had television. We made a lot of decisions as an administrative WELCOMES also become more involved in hospital administration with my team, thinking through the problems, and developing the appointment to the Firelands Regional Medical Center board best decisions for our community. It was wonderful to see of directors, and subsequently, the Executive Board of the everyone pull together to work through the daily issues that hospital. I then went on to be the hospital’s Chief of Staff. we encountered secondary to the virus. I am confident the NEW CHIEF I found satisfaction, as well as a challenge, in these roles.” decisions made here at the hospital have been well thought out and based on the best science available. If some After receiving a great deal of support and encouragement decisions I have made along the way have not been to apply for the position from his peers, board members, correct, I apologize, this is my first pandemic!” and administrative team members, Dr. Campbell reconsidered. MEDICAL “I saw the CMO position as an opportunity to take on Denise Parrish, Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer, something new and expand my administrative experience. acknowledges how valuable Dr. Campbell’s advice and I believed that I possessed the medical knowledge and expertise is, especially as the hospital continues to deal experience to fulfill the role. I met with Jeremy and learned with the COVID-19 pandemic. “Never in our history was a OFFICER what his expectations for the CMO position were. After CMO needed as much as it was during the COVID crisis. Dr. much reflection, I felt I would be a good fit, and we’d Campbell provided our Hospital Incident Command System work well together. I decided to apply for the job.” team (HICS) with legitimate science and helped us base The same wise decision-making could be said in the our decisions on what we knew at that point in time.

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