ImpactHENNEPIN HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION GENEROSITY HAPPENS HERE Responding to COVID-19 A special edition honoring the healthcare heroes of Hennepin Healthcare 3Ws Demonstrate your concern for others as well as yourself by following the 3 Ws. Wear Your Mask TURNING CHA Jennifer DeCubellis, CEO Hennepin Healthcare When I became CEO of Hennepin Healthcare, I had big plans. Most of Wash Your Hands them involved listening, learning and developing new ways to move our mission forward in helping our community. In a matter of weeks it became apparent COVID-19 had other plans, and the mission of our institution was going to be put to the test like never before. As a trauma center, we’re used to urgency, we’re just not used to Watch Your Distance urgency lasting so long. This pandemic is an “all hands on deck” moment, a call to action. The most reassuring part of it has been seeing 6 ft. how quickly people have responded, turning the chaos into confidence. Our staff, across the board, did not run away. Instead, they said, “We’ve got this.” They jumped in, in creative ways, aimed at making a difference and being there for each other and for our community. The Impact newsletter is published twice a year by the Hennepin Healthcare Foundation. Editor is We serve a particularly vulnerable Amy Carlson. Contributing writers in this issue are population in Minnesota. When you Amy Carlson, Tom Hayes, Chris Hill, and Brian Lucas. hear about social determinants of Design by Karen Olson. Contributing photographers health and high risk factors for Scott Streble and self-submissions. To be removed COVID, you’re hearing the reality of from our mailing list please call 612-873-6090 or many of the patients we care for email [email protected]. 2 Hennepin Healthcare Foundation TURNING CHAOS INTO CONFIDENCE every day. By definition, this places innovation because our focus had to through is generosity. We have been additional barriers in front of our be on the community, and keeping amazed by the way the community ability to get ahead of this virus. people safe. Throughout this time, has rallied around our health care Things like testing, contact tracing, we heard one phrase over and over workers. This includes a wave of distancing, shelter, nutrition, and again from our team members: “I support for the Hennepin Heroes masks are all particular challenges want to help.” Fund, set up by the Hennepin for many in our community. We Healthcare Foundation. This fund don’t shy away from these Our employees from across the helps provide shelter to doctors and challenges. We meet them head on. organization acted out of concern nurses who don’t want to risk going for each other and out of home between shifts. It brings In this issue, produced by our commitment to our patients to do nutritious meals to the front lines, Foundation, you will read stories what needed to be done. Time and allowing staff to take care of about people who are using their time again! themselves while taking care of passion and expertise to find others. It also helps expand needed solutions and address the unique There was a gift shop worker who, spiritual support services to help our needs of our community. when the gift shop closed, asked if employees process and cope during she could help with traffic control at particularly difficult days. Creating a The first months of COVID ushered the hospital entrances. There were critical support system for our staff, in a time of unprecedented researchers who worked to tackle the foundation and its donors innovation across Hennepin the unique questions presented by became the wind beneath our wings. Healthcare. We had to figure out this virus, and were able to bring new safety measures. We developed leading edge treatments to our We often talk about Hennepin telehealth practices where none patients. There were residents who Healthcare being “7,000 strong.” existed before. Then, when we talked dove into the challenges presented Never before has this strength been to our patients and learned that it by COVID as an opportunity to learn so evident. Our collective reaction to wasn’t working for everybody, we and contribute to patient care. There COVID is showing off our strength. It quickly made changes to adjust the were people who stepped up to get is not ego driven, it is patient driven. technology and add languages to trained on PPE use, or COVID It shows how our hearts and minds meet the needs of our patients. We testing, going to the front lines when can drive us forward, even in the reached out into the community to they didn’t have to. It was obvious face of great uncertainty. Even now, test populations that were at highest that we were facing a pandemic we don’t know when this will end risk for the virus. problem, not a people problem, and and what twists and turns are ahead. our people were going to get it done. Still, we have shown what we are We also cleared away some of the made of and that we will find a path rules and regulations that normally Another aspect of the coronavirus to that finish line together. would have slowed down this kind of response that continues to help us Impact Special Edition 2020 3 EMERGING THREA GETTING READY F EMERGING THREAT Y FOR A PANDEMIC You can plan. You can train. You can Drawing on the experiences of Recognizing the need for a read and study and prepare. But hard-hit communities overseas and coordinated response, leaders when a pandemic is approaching on the west and east coasts, staff opened the Incident Command your doorstep, you need to act. By worked to absorb the lessons of the Center and staff mobilized across late January, 2020, employees pandemic response. Personal the organization. The pandemic across Hennepin Healthcare realized protective equipment (PPE) would soon be here. COVID-19 was coming and it was requirements, air-flow and going to change everything. That ventilation needs, visitor protocols, meant everyone had to figure out bed and ventilator shortages... there how to be part of the solution. were so many questions to answer with no time to spare. Impact Special Edition 2020 5 GETTING READY FOR A PANDEMIC PPE and Supply Chain From the beginning of the pandemic, it was apparent the first line of defense was not a vaccine, it was masks, gloves, goggles, and ventilators. Shortages of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) were being reported around the country. Stories of doctors and nurses who had to wear the same N95 mask for entire weeks, or of Intensive Care Units that were exploring ways to have patients share ventilators, illustrated that supply chain logistics were going to be critical to saving lives. In early January, long before COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, supply chain leadership started working with clinical leaders and infection control to develop a plan. They looked at data and case studies to determine needs and identify possible shortages. They had to get creative and look for new vendors to be sure they would be able to handle a possible coronavirus surge. “It was challenging but we’re built to Lab be proactive,” said Luis Valadez, Senior Director of Supply Chain. “We could either sit back and cross our Listening to and learning from international connections built over years fingers or we could step up. It was in the industry, Dr. Glen Hansen, Director of Hennepin Healthcare’s Clinical stressful but we knew that everything Microbiology and Molecular Diagnostic Lab, understood the urgency of we brought in, every vent, every placing orders for critical testing supplies and equipment. So by the time disinfectant wipe, every piece of PPE COVID-19 testing began in March, his team had already secured more than would be put to good use.” 200,000 test kits. The lab increased staffing from four to 15 full-time medical technologists and extended shifts to provide 24-hour coverage. In addition to bringing in more supplies, staff worked on protocols This preparation propelled Hennepin Healthcare to the forefront of virus to be sure people knew when to testing for patients, staff, and community members, with the ability to use PPE and how to wear it process up to 2,000 tests per day. The lab was the first in the state to effectively. PPE carts were stationed provide testing for public walk-in, perform saliva tests and to return in patient care units along with results for patients in less than 24 hours. specially trained “PPE Buddies” who helped make sure doctors and “Getting rapid turnaround from our lab - in some cases less than 70 nurses were protected before minutes - is crucial not only for screening asymptomatic inpatients, but entering patient rooms. also for those with symptoms whose course of care is determined by this diagnosis,” said Dr. Hansen. Thankfully, increased manufacturing, creative approaches to sourcing, and Hennepin’s long tradition of excellence in medical education, research and community donations have made innovation has created lasting industry relationships all over the world. PPE readily available, allowing staff These relationships become invaluable in the face of a global pandemic. to stay safe and ready to withstand the long lens of this pandemic. 6 Hennepin Healthcare Foundation Trauma Response As a Level I Trauma facility, Hennepin Healthcare had a responsibility to prepare not only for an influx of COVID-19 patients, but also to safely handle the wide variety of trauma cases that normally come through the doors. This meant that new precautions had to be put in place.