Heroes

In late March, Portland saw a spike in the population of homeless people who were getting sick with COVID-19. To help protect the city’s homeless residents, city leaders immediately opened the Portland Expo as an alternative shelter site that would allow them to maintain their shelter capacity while adhering to the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) social distancing guidelines. But how would they separate the healthy population from those with the virus? Cathy Bean, RN stepped up to help. Donning protective gear, she and her staff went into the shelters daily to screen and test the residents. Northern Light Home Care & Hospice also equipped the city of Portland with a telehealth system so home care nurses could provide follow up appointments. As a result, they were able to help shelter residents with other medical conditions that may have been missed.

Many of these people, due to COVID-19, were in quarantine, and meals brought outside their door with no one able to check on them. Now, we could get in there and take care of these people, and that’s been very rewarding.”

When Northern Light Health knew COVID-19 would arrive in Maine, James Jarvis, MD was chosen to coordinate the system’s response among its member hospitals in addition to coordinating with state and local governments and the other major healthcare systems in Maine. Another unexpected role that Dr. Jarvis fulfilled during the pandemic was to be the primary spokesperson for Northern Light Health for weekly statewide news conferences via Zoom. Several times a week he would convey critical information to members of the media and our communities.

One of the pleasant surprises I’ve had during this time was somebody randomly driving by, lowering their window, and saying, ‘Dr. Jarvis, how are you doing? You always ask how we’re doing through TV, we want to make sure you’re okay.’ I teared up a little because, sure it’s neat to be recognized, but it was that sense of community that Mainers have to say, ‘we need to make sure you’re okay because we appreciate what you’re doing.”

For Dr. Hammond, COVID-19 became personal very quickly as one of her long-time patients, with whom she’d experienced many ups and downs, was among the first in Maine to die of the deadly coronavirus. “It was a curve ball, and it felt so unfair,” she said. Dr. Hammond was instrumental in setting up the COVID-19 response plan for Northern Light Mercy Hospital, which became a model shared with other Northern Light Health hospitals across the state. The drive-up “swab and go” tent at Mercy’s Fore River campus allowed people to safely and easily get tested for the coronavirus. The plan also included a respiratory tent site in Westbrook to assess whether people with symptoms needed to be admitted to the emergency department or sent home with care instructions. And it included a virtual clinic to keep patients out of hospital and primary care settings through telehealth for follow-up appointments. She worked seven days a week while her children were being schooled at home. She and her husband, also a front line provider, tried to allay their family’s fears and correct misinformation in their communities.

On the hardest days I still love what I do. I don’t feel like I’m a hero; I’m doing what was asked of me and what I chose to do as a doctor. This is a hard time, but I don’t think I want to be anywhere else in the middle of all of this.”

Caring for elderly residents at Northern Light Continuing Care, Lakewood is an enormous responsibility that Jenica Achey understands all too well. She works with a vulnerable population, and is living with someone at high risk. Jenica, who rarely leaves her house except for work, canceled out of state travel plans to ensure her family and Lakewood residents are safe. “For me, it’s the gratitude that they all show. You can see it in their faces when you put on their make-up or help them pick out an outfit.” During COVID-19, as residents can only communicate with family through closed windows, by phone, or electronically, she says it’s more important than ever to show comfort and compassion.

They can’t see your smile with a mask over your face, but your eyes smile too. And they can see that. And that helps them.”

Since the start of the pandemic, when a 911 call comes into Northern Light Medical Transport, the caller is screened to see if the patient has COVID-19 symptoms. That way, Cassie Craig knows if she must suit up in full gear, including respirator masks, goggles, gloves, and gowns. This adds some time to the response, but is an important step to protect her and her co-workers, to stop the spread of the virus, and to make sure she can continue her job. She also makes sure to wash her clothes at the station in order to limit any exposure to family members.

I would come to work in a pandemic as I would come to work on a Tuesday, this is the job that I signed up for. It’s become more difficult lately, but I’m going to come to work anyway. I’m here to do my job.”

Matt Grant is one of two full-time respiratory therapists at Northern Light Mayo. Understanding that COVID-19 is a respiratory virus, he knew his services would be in demand if there were an influx of patients. So, he also spent time training staff to make sure they were ready. Matt says it’s all part of the job, even in a global pandemic.

People have been very appreciative, and I’d be remiss not to acknowledge that, but I don’t consider myself a hero. We haven’t been hit as hard as some hospitals across the country. They are working nonstop overtime and going out and being in the face of this. I would consider myself lucky, but I wouldn’t consider myself a hero by any means.”

In regular times, Tammy Violette’s job involves supporting clinical services and staff of Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center’s Primary Care. But since COVID-19, she has also become an expert in swab and go sites — screening and testing people for COVID-19. Tammy helped coordinate staff at the testing site, which was a partnership with the City of Bangor, EMMC, St. Joseph Hospital, and Penobscot Community Health Care (PCHC). “How was traffic going to flow? What type of staff were we going to use? How were the swabs going to get collected? How are they going to be housed? So, there was a lot of logistics in terms of details,” she explains.

Everyone in our community, our eyes have been opened to everyday heroes. Individuals that continue to keep the grocery store stocked so that people can eat during this time. I think that we all have to just remember that we’re in this together, and we should be thankful for the efforts of all.”

Emily is a family nurse practitioner who sees patients from infants to geriatrics. When Covid-19 hit, her workflow changed dramatically at Northern Light Primary Care in Pittsfield. Instead of doing in-person visits for several weeks, her practice switched to telehealth visits. She says her patients, especially older ones concerned about leaving home, were grateful they could continue receiving medical care. Another group that was grateful for the staff at SVH was the local police and fire departments, who came through the parking lot in a parade of flashing lights in a show of support and solidarity.

When you think of the word hero, you think of somebody that's very dynamic and can do unbelievable things, right? And I think, for those of us that got into healthcare, we never consider ourselves heroes or thought that we would be looked at as a hero. So, you feel a lot of pride.”

Sean says that during Covid-19, they've seen fewer people in the emergency department during his night shifts, but the people who come in have been sicker. He attributes it to people waiting longer to seek medical help due to fears about Covid-19. Sean says the job has changed quite a bit as they must now wear hoods, masks, gowns, gloves, and face shields, making it harder to communicate with patients. But he says it's not only the masks that are limiting. "A lot of what we do is tactile touch. The gloves we use pretty regularly, and it takes away from that one moment. Before you do a procedure, you put a hand on somebody, and they feel that human touch, and that's not there. You take away a lot of that tactile touch that sometimes is very comforting, especially to the older population." Sean's wife is also a nurse, and his 15-year-old son is a junior firefighter, so they are all on the front lines. To deal with stress, one of their favorite activities is hiking.

The only thing it's (COVID-19) affected is the places we go hiking because we try to stay away from as many people as possible. In that respect, it's made us a little bit more creative in where we go. But the silver lining in that cloud is we found places that we haven't been to in years and enjoy hiking now.”

Whenever a natural disaster or emergency strikes, Northern Light Health is prepared, thanks in part to Kathy Knight and her team’s work. It is their job to prepare, respond, and recover from emergencies. They hold training throughout the year, and know what to do in an emergency. One priority is activating an incident command structure, which streamlines communications between key decision-makers. For the first time in its history, Northern Light Health had a unified response involving all member organizations. The incident command team had to resolve several issues all at once, including a disruption of the supply chain for personal protective equipment, new work plans based on the latest CDC guidance, and an immediate ramp-up of our information systems to accommodate an increased demand for telehealth services. While there are lessons learned from every emergency, Kathy was pleased with everyone’s work throughout the system.

I look at what we have accomplished from maximizing resources, developing a single coordinated response, delivering transparent, timely, accurate, and standardized communications to all employees, and meeting the challenges of COVID-19 head on by remaining flexible, openminded and imaginative, and I am just amazed!”

In mid-February David and the Information Systems (IS) team started testing scenarios if large numbers of employees had to work remotely. They also looked to ramp-up telehealth services. Luckily, they had already started to improve our telehealth and teleconferencing platforms. Northern Light Acadia Hospital had been using Zoom telepsychiatry. Dave and the IS team had to quickly figure out how to expand it to the rest of the system. “Before COVID-19, in January, we did approximately 1,500 to 1,700 telehealth visits. By April, we ramped-up to about 34,000. The technology we put in place allowed us to provide care to our patients who could not come in,” says Dave. It meant a lot of work in a short time to modify these systems. The IS team played a crucial role in allowing front line staff and support staff to continue working safely while providing exceptional care for patients. Dave, who is also a pilot of a single-engine plane, literally went above and beyond his duties and organized a three plane flyover of Northern Light Hospitals last spring to honor our employees.

We do this for a reason, the same as anyone else in the organization—to take care of our patients. The frontline people need our assistance, and we’re proud to offer that.”

Whenever a patient with COVID-19 is treated in the Emergency Department at Northern Light Blue Hill Hospital, they can take comfort in knowing that Carla Leino is on the job. Dressed from head to toe in personal protective equipment, she goes into patient rooms to clean once patients are discharged. She is armed with cleaning chemicals and wipes down every surface as she sanitizes the room from floor to ceiling. “We make sure that the cleaning we’re doing is the best that it can be, not only to protect ourselves but anyone else that will go into the room. When the next patient is coming through the door, that room is ready for them,” says Carla.

I don’t have a special prayer, but I talk to God every day when I leave my house, and I ask him for strength to carry-on and do what I have to do no matter how it makes me feel. I’m doing this for the greater good. I’m doing his work. It gets me through.”

Whenever you need supplies to do your job, Mark Noble is the man who gets you what you need. “I don’t want anybody to say I don’t have what I need when I need it. Until this point, not one person has had to say that,” he says with pride. Mark is hoping he can continue to keep that record. Still, having personal protective equipment (PPE) in stock has been challenging during a pandemic that caused a global shortage of PPE and disrupted the entire supply chain. Fortunately, Mark and his team could see the warning signs and took proactive measures to increase ordering and find alternative vendors.

We always look out for one another. My whole job is to make sure our patients and employees are safe and they have the equipment they need to stay safe. I take pride in that.”

Spring 2020 was a challenging time for everyone at Northern Maine Community College. Students who were finishing up their studies had to leave campus; administrators and faculty quickly put a distance learning plan into action. Once they successfully took care of their own, Tim Crowley, president, Northern Maine Community College, looked outward to see how they could help their neighbors at Northern Light AR Gould Hospital. With the dormitories closed, Crowley could offer rooms to any front-line workers at AR Gould who needed to isolate from their families. The college also had hospital beds in its closed simulation lab that it could offer to AR Gould to accommodate a surge of patients. Despite the pandemic, the college graduated nursing students from its program without delay to help meet the growing demand.

We’re a community college; the community is right in the middle of who we are. Without the community, we don’t have the resources here. It’s not just about the appropriation. It’s about community support. We have a lot of that. So, our concern for the community goes right along with our concern for our students.”

Public safety runs deep in Jeff Chretien’s family. He and his wife are firefighters and emergency medical technicians. Because they live and work in the Newport area, they interact with healthcare workers at Northern Light Sebasticook Valley Hospital in Pittsfield. They have a lot of respect for the sacrifice frontline workers are making during this global pandemic, which is why they wanted to take part in an impressive show of appreciation. Firefighters from Newport, Pittsfield, Detroit, Plymouth, Etna, Burnham, and Corinna, and officers from the Pittsfield Police department all took part in a parade of vehicles in front of the hospital in late April.

I think of what I do on the back of an ambulance. It’s roughly a half-hour to get the person to the hospital, followed by a half-hour cleaning the ambulance. After we drop them off, hospital workers are caring for them for days. We do it for a short time, and they’re doing it for the next two weeks. They’re heroes. They’re warriors.”