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Healthcare Workers are Heroes

Whether healthcare workers wear capes or not, their first title should be Superhero. Good Shepherd has 
over 750 employees that have put our patients and each other first no matter the challenges they have 
faced during unprecedented circumstances.

While working closely with Umatilla County Public Health, the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) and the 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), here are some of the triumphs our health care system 
accomplished during the pandemic: 

of Emergency, which includes a multidisciplinary 
leadership team working around-the-clock to 
ensure our facilities have the capacity, supplies, 
equipment and staffing to handle the surge of 
COVID patients. 

• Limited visitation in accordance with Oregon Health 

Authority (OHA) guidelines.

• Restructured infection prevention/employee health 

to better serve our population.

• Implemented social distancing measures in all 

waiting areas throughout our facilities.

• Good Shepherd Urgent Care completed 4,605 

COVID tests from May 2020 to July 2021.

• GSHCS’ COVID-19 vaccination team has 

administered 10,475 vaccine doses to the date of 
this publishing. 44 mass vaccine clinics were offered 
to the community during a span of 31 weeks. 

• Implemented our Incident Command System, 

a structure used for preparation, training and 
mitigating all types of emergencies. GSHCS has 
used this key structure since the Oregon State 
and United States Governments declared States 

• The hospital and its services that our housekeepers 

are responsible for cleaning is over 300,000 square 
feet, which is 10,000 square feet per employee, 
equivalent to about 10 homes per day (average 
home is 2,500 square feet). Our Environmental 
Services team took on the “extra cleaning” process 
for COVID-19 dedicated patient rooms with 
strict infection control processes and time frame 
requirements based on CDC and OHA guidelines. 

• Each day (365/year), our Materials Management 

team scans and stocks approximately 4,700 items 
in our nursing units, surgery center and all clinics on 
and off campus, to ensure our health care workers 
have what they need to care for patients. Over 
5,000,000 individual items per year are needed for 
the hospital to function at normal volumes, which 
has fluctuated considerably during the pandemic.

• Our Laboratory Department ran a total of 1,276,916 

laboratory tests and our laboratory technologists 
conducted 6,945 microbiology cultures this past 
year. We performed 2,195 Type & Screen/Crossmatch 
tests which include ABO/RH blood types and 
compatibility with donor units or unexpected 
antibodies to donor units to help our patients.

• The Treatment Center has partnered with Quality 

and Pharmacy to develop a program for high-risk 
COVID-19 patients to be identified and offered 
infusion for the monoclonal antibody, Bamlanivimab. 
This medication is a one-time infusion that is used 
to reduce the risk of future Emergency Department 
visits and inpatient admissions.

• CareVan Transportation services was expanded 

to include a prescription home delivery service; 
working closely with our Pharmacy Department 
to ensure our patients have access to their 
prescriptions during COVID. 

• Auxiliary Members have not been able to volunteer 

within GSHCS since March 2020, but have had 
other opportunities to be of help to GSHCS staff 
and patients.

Good Shepherd’s Emergency Room cared for a 
record 92 patients in a 24-hour period during a 
COVID surge.

Good Shepherd Pharmacy stepped up to provide prescription 
pickup from vehicles and home deliveries for our patients.

Good Shepherd nurses and supporting staff during 
National Nurses Week.

Good Shepherd Urgent Care team dressing up as 
superheros during National Hospital Week.

Emergency 
Room 
staff in full 
Personal 
Protective 
Equipment 
(PPE).