Clockwise from top left: Michael Ugwueke of Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, Dr. James Downing of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Sally Hurt-Deitch of Tenet Health’s Mid-South Region, Michael Wiggins of Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, Jason Little of Baptist Memorial Health Care Corporation, Dr. Reginald W. Coopwood of Regional One Health, Dr. Steve J. Schwab of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.
Inside Memphis Business and Memphis magazines presented the 2021 CEOs of the Year in a virtual roundtable sponsored by eBiz Solutions on March 4th.
The leaders of healthcare organizations in Memphis spoke of reacting quickly to the evolving situation that hit hard a year ago when the COVID-19 pandemic settled in. They had some issues in common, but they also had distinct challenges and priorities that reflected their missions. Their leadership, experience, and empathy allowed them to confront the singular trials of this era.
Here is some of what they had to say, and a taste of the variety of situations to be confronted:
Dr. Steve J. Schwab, UTHSC: "We are proud of the fact that at the end of the first four months of the pandemic, we graduated every resident, fellow, and student on schedule and sent them on to their advanced training."
Michael Wiggins, Le Bonheur Children's Hospital: Certainly the physicians, the nurses, the respiratory therapists have been heroes, but also our housekeepers who have developed new cleaning protocols and cleaning processes to keep our environment safe. And our maintenance technicians who have moved furniture, who have put up plexiglass barriers and all these things to make sure our environments are safe."
Jason Little, Baptist Memorial Health Care Corporation: "At Baptist we were doing about 90 telemedicine visits a month in January (2020) and by April that number had increased to 22,000."
Dr. Reginald W. Coopwood, Regional One Health: "We suffered with mainly nurses but also respiratory therapists taking temporary jobs in hot spots. We typically want people to give us two weeks notice but these people were offered such extraordinary packages, they'd say, 'Hey, I'm going to New York tomorrow, bye!' "
Dr. James Downing, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital: "With our St. Jude Global, we immediately set up a COVID-19 registry for pediatric cancer patients across the globe. We did this in collaboration with the International Society for Pediatric Oncology. Over 50 countries contributed data from children with cancer who had been infected with COVID-19 and we rapidly learned what effect that virus had on those children."
Michael Ugwueke, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare: "A lot of what will change is how we provide care to patients. Now we have another opportunity for patients to access care, not just the traditional outpatient, physician office, emergency room — now telehealth is an option, so that too will be ramping up as we go into what the new normal will look like."
Sally Hurt-Deitch, Tenet/St. Francis Hospitals: "The beginning month (of the pandemic) was the adrenaline rush of adrenaline rushes.”
You can also read interviews with the CEOs in Memphis Magazine
And here is the full webinar.
