|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
COVID-19 has significantly impacted things we value most in life: our physical, mental and spiritual health, our connection to each other, and our ability to support and protect our family and loved ones. Everyone has had a different experience over the past year and a half, but this pandemic has touched all of us in some way, and for some, has affected them in the worst way imaginable.
We see and feel the pain this virus has inflicted on our community, and every day we stand ready to continue adapting to the ever-changing conditions and ensuring we are here to help you lead the healthiest life possible. While the number of cases is starting to trend downward after exceeding last year’s peak, we are not out of the woods. We are honored that you turn to us for care and guidance. Now we are turning to you because our community is in great need of everyone’s help in protecting themselves and others from COVID-19.
Throughout Baptist Health’s 80-year history of caring for this community, we have answered the call to our community with purpose and passion. Your health and the health of your loved ones are of the utmost importance to us, and caring for you is our privilege. We take that responsibility very seriously, just as we take this pandemic very seriously.
We have navigated this crisis by ensuring we have adequate staff, supplies and safety measures in place, and we follow the science. While we know how to plan for emergencies, it is difficult to mentally prepare for the ongoing suffering we are witnessing on a daily basis.
Inside our hospitals and emergency and urgent care centers, we are faced with the sobering reality of this relentless virus every day. The rapid spread of the Delta variant has caused the most recent surge of cases, which once again caused a sharp rise in the number of hospitalizations. The vast majority of patients we are treating at our hospitals who are positive for COVID-19 are unvaccinated, and they are younger. Many of these otherwise healthy patients are battling this disease under intensive care.
Vaccination Is Vital
The ability for us to care for our community begins with having a healthy workforce. We prioritize the health and wellness of our employees so they can be their best each day, and protecting the physical and mental health of our staff is more important now than ever. It’s our culture to take care of each other so that we can be there for our patients and their families when you need us.
We recognize that in order to beat this pandemic together and fully protect our patients, employees and community, we all need to be vaccinated. We have continued to witness evidence of the efficacy and safety of the vaccine in clinical studies and through firsthand suffering of unvaccinated patients in our facilities. We know the vaccines are safe. For those reasons, it is now a requirement for all of our employees, medical staff and volunteers to receive the vaccine by October 31.
We are committed to doing everything we can to help defeat COVID-19. I urge you to help us with this effort, because we are all connected and our actions impact those around us. Getting vaccinated for COVID-19 is the most powerful tool we have to protect our health and safety, and we are fortunate that it is widely available in our community.
Gratitude and Support
From the first time we treated a patient with COVID-19 and through each surge, our frontline employees and physicians, and those who support them, have selflessly dedicated themselves to caring for our community. We are so grateful and have the utmost respect for them. The profession they have chosen is noble, and oftentimes difficult, but they do it because they want to help others. They carry out their work with pride and compassion, yet caregivers are human and the physical and emotional toll becomes heavy when suffering is preventable.
Our healthcare heroes are giving it their all, and they need everyone’s support. We owe it to everyone who is on the front lines to do all we can to fight, and stop, this virus –– and we know vaccination is the best way to do that.
Our community has a history of coming together to deal with challenges. This is the greatest widespread healthcare challenge we have ever experienced, and it will continue to require our collective determination to improve the current conditions and truly make a difference.
Too many people have suffered. Too many lives have been lost. We all want to put this public health crisis behind us and get back to our lives and each other. Together we can do this by continuing to support and protect each other by getting vaccinated.
