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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).