Dress The Heroes

46 Community, Future PROTECTING THE PREPARING FOR THE Build the region’s best-in-class ICU, together with Holy Name’s Healthcare Heroes An interview with MICHAEL MARON PRESIDENT & CEO, HOLY NAME MEDICAL CENTER Holy Name Medical Center was at the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Jersey and earned national recognition for its leadership response, innovative solutions and compassionate approach to patient care. President and CEO Michael Maron discusses how Holy Name’s healthcare heroes gave everything they had, every day, to bring their community through the crisis. Q. During the peak of the COVID-19 crisis in NJ, Holy Name Medical Center was one of the country’s earliest and hardest hit hospitals. How did Holy Name pull through and protect the community? A. Everyone rose as a team to safeguard patients and staff alike, while also protecting our commu- nity through education and outreach. Our health- care heroes devised new approaches to treating patients, as their caregivers, families, and end- of-life support when visits were not possible. Our clinical and research teams joined clinical trials and innovated therapies, including the world’s first use of Regeneron monoclonal antibody cocktails and the country’s first use of placen- tal cell therapy. Our facilities team retrofitted the hospital, and in two weeks’ time, built: five new ICUs containing 75 beds, 250 patent-pending isopods, and 230 negative-pressure rooms. Q. How is Holy Name prepared for a potential surge of COVID-19 patients this fall and winter, combined with a possible flu epidemic? A. Our Teaneck campus and medical offices un- derwent extensive sanitizing procedures to kill 30 types of pathogens, including COVID-19. We have stockpiled PPE, ventilators, and therapeu- tics, and we left the newly built ICUs intact. Our Center for Healthy Living, PharmaCare retail pharmacy, and Familia y Salud Hispanic outreach program are vaccinating the community against the flu. A $5 million grant from the NJ Department of Health will fund a high-throughput analyzer for rapid COVID testing and three staffed mobile vans, each with negative-pressure COVID testing rooms that can alternately accommodate vacci- nations. We are also enhancing our telemedicine services, recruiting nurses, and building a new state-of-the-art ICU.