'Are You Sitting Down?' 4 Years with COVID
Today is February 28, 2024, four years since we learned that COVID-19 had arrived in our Kirkland hospital. Our shared future continues.
"Are you sitting down?" These are the words that four years ago today would usher in the COVID-19 pandemic for me. I'm sure each of you remembers the moment you first learned that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, had arrived at EvergreenHealth. When Dr. Francis Riedo, our Infection Control Medical Director, called me on the evening of February 28th, 2020, and uttered those words followed by the report that two patients in the hospital had tested positive for the novel coronavirus, I would have never predicted the historic challenges that the organization would encounter over the next several years.
Being first is not always best, particularly when it comes to being the health care organization at the epicenter of the country's first large community outbreak of COVID-19. During the first many months of the pandemic, the word "unprecedented" would become the most frequently used term at EvergreenHealth, and new ways of describing the ever-evolving obstacles encountered by all divisions of the organization were needed. Months turned into years and with each new challenge, the amazing staff of EvergreenHealth rose to meet it.
While we continue to grieve for those who were lost and are forever grateful to the patients and their families for trusting us with their care, we look to the future with great hope. Over the next several years, we will continue building on our 50-plus-year foundation of care and service, which we sustained – even enhanced – during a global pandemic. Every staff member, clinical and non-clinical, continues to have a role in providing that crucial care.
Ultimately, I can't help but wonder what history will say about EvergreenHealth when it looks back on the events of the COVID-19 pandemic. I believe it will say that when it mattered most, the organization stayed true to its mission, vision and values. Thank you to our patients, our staff and our community for your support over these past four years.
