Fredericksburg Parent

30 Fredericksburg Parent and Family • Stories of Strength Special Issue With the Community's Help, Mary Washington Hospital Rose to the Pandemic Challenge INTERVIEWED BY EMILY FREEHLING As the world came to grips with the severity of the novel coronavirus in February and March of 2020, so much was unknown. But as it became clear that the Fredericksburg region needed to prepare for rising cases of COVID-19, Anita Shell, DNP, RN, CENP, knew the unit she leads at Mary Washington Hospital would play a major role in coordinating needed care. Shell, who is the director of the Medical Surgical Care Center at Mary Washington Hospital, knew that the renal respiratory unit she oversees would be caring for many COVID-19 patients. "Everything was unknown," Shell remembers, "But we knew we needed to work together to ensure we had good clinical practice guidelines. We had to ensure that our staff was put in a position to be successful in caring for this vulnerable population." Mary Washington Healthcare ALL EYES ON THE HOSPITAL The COVID-19 pandemic put Fredericksburg's locally owned, not-for-profit health system in the forefront of public discussions of how the community should respond to a new and highly contagious respiratory virus that changed life as people knew it across the globe. Through open letters to the community, live town hall meetings and other venues, Mary Washington Healthcare President and CEO Mike McDermott, M.D., MBA urged community members to stay home, socially distance, wash hands, wear masks and take other practical measures to slow the spread of the virus. "We must do this together," he urged in a March 23 letter. The community heeded that advice. Individuals, schools, businesses, churches and groups from all over the Fredericksburg region immediately began looking for ways to help support the area's healthcare workers. HELP POURS IN "Food started rolling in," recalls Meri Jones, who at the time worked as executive assistant for Mary Washington Healthcare's chief human resources officer. "We had food donations daily, multiple times a day," Jones said. "The community support we had was huge." She and others in the executive office coordinated to log and track each dona- tion, and ensure it got to workers across all of Mary Washington Healthcare's loca- tions in the Fredericksburg region. "We were able to take it in and make it work," she said. "Everybody got a little treat at least once." A major challenge brought by the pan- demic during the spring and summer of 2020 was supplying healthcare work- ers with sufficient personal protective equipment. In April, Mary Washington Healthcare challenged the community to donate 5,000 hand-made masks to keep workers safe as cases surged. "Our community was amazing and went above and beyond—we got more than 10,000 masks," Jones said. The hospital's supply chain team worked to distribute the masks, coordinating with teams at Mary Washington Hospital,

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