Oct 5, 2020 | Leadership
It’s October and as I have mentioned to many of you, it is hard to not feel a wee bit (or maybe a lot) discouraged that the primary topic of conversation remains COVID-19. As Ontario has officially entered the second wave of this pandemic, I would like to take October’s blog as an opportunity to write about some of my observations – observations from the perspective of a Hospital CEO, a parent, grandmother, Windsor-Essex community member, and leader.
Each week I visit various units and departments of our hospital. This is not only a check-in and to say hello, but to also talk about our ongoing responses, worries, and learnings about COVID-19. At first, these walkabouts were about sharing the ever-changing information. More recently they have been about validating concerns, sharing projections, and providing assurance that although things are quiet in Windsor-Essex at present, we at HDGH remain vigilant and prepared. These conversations with our more than 1,100 staff, have, from what I’ve heard, been of tremendous value not only for them for also for me. Through these COVID-19 information walkabouts, I am reminded of the value of face-to-face (now mask-to-mask) conversations, and that communication to our staff without the opportunity for back and forth conversation is not ideal in times of difficulty or anxiety. While our digital world has provided the opportunity for timely, mass communication, the information I get from seeing, sensing, responding, and hearing from our team cannot be undervalued.
Here are a few things I learned from one of our teams during my last walkabout:
“There’s a fine line between fear and panic. Fear can drive preparedness, planning, and a thoughtful response to a crisis. Panic impairs our ability to assess the true impact of our experience and in turn, respond in a measured fashion.”
While we enter this next phase of responding to COVID-19. Our hospital, YOUR hospital, our Windsor-Essex post-acute community hospital, continues to keep a very steady pulse on this virus. We continue to do our work to keep each and every one of our staff members, patients and community safe. It was a promise of mine in March and remains a promise of mine today.
We’ve been on a road together now for months and we’ll continue for the foreseeable future. Let me know please if there are things you want to hear about, know about or have more information about that would help you. I regularly take ideas for blogs from me and from guest bloggers from my talks with you all so keep the ideas coming.
Stay well. Stay safe. Stay HDGH strong.
Jan