Wednesday, September 1, 2021
SJRMC Caregivers Honored by San Juan County Commission
The San Juan County Commission is honoring San Juan Regional Medical Center’s Caregivers for the hard work, commitment and dedication they’ve demonstrated to their patients and the entire community during the COVID-19 pandemic. Commissioners Terri Fortner and Steve Lanier visited the hospital Wednesday morning to present a special resolution proclaiming September 11, 2021 as Caregiver Celebration Day in San Juan County.
“I can’t imagine what your daily job is and what you have to go through, but I want you to know it is not unseen and people through the county are very, very appreciative,” Commissioner Lanier said.
Commissioner Fortner, an RN, nurse practitioner and former San Juan Regional Medical Center Board Member, is no stranger to the inner workings of healthcare. She started out as a nursing student at San Juan Regional Medical Center in the early 1980s.
“Through the highs and lows of healthcare over the past four decades, what I’ve learned about those in healthcare is that resiliency, hope and compassion are part of our innate skills,” she said. “We trust you and pray for you,” she told the caregivers in attendance.
The Proclamation highlights the hospital’s response to the pandemic, starting February 5, 2020, shortly after the first COVID-19 case in the United States was reported and a public health emergency was declared, and details some of the innovative ways caregivers were able to meet community need.
“In order to care for COVID-19 patients, the Caregivers at San Juan Regional Medical Center demonstrated the Core Values of San Juan Regional Medical Center by rapidly implementing significant operational changes and adaptations, including, but not limited to: creating a dedicated respiratory Intensive Care Unit, designating respiratory and non-respiratory workflow processes in the emergency department, creating additional negative pressure rooms, initiating of a COVID-19 screening phone line, setting up PPE reprocessing in the Cardiac Rehabilitation Gym, expanding the in-house laundry service to wash an average of 3,000 reusable gowns per day, providing in-home visits by EMS to COVID to Home patients, providing COVID-19 testing for employees and pre-op patients at San Juan Health Partners Urgent Care, offering a Monoclonal Antibody infusion clinic; erecting a dedicated respiratory clinic for San Juan Health Partners patients and many, many more innovative adaptations,” the proclamation reads.
“We are so pleased that the County Commission offered to draft this proclamation and adopt it in your honor, in the honor of those you work with, and in the honor of those patients that we have served,” Jeff Bourgeois, President and CEO of San Juan Regional Medical Center told caregivers. “We thank you and we praise you for what you have done.”
Similar proclamations have been adopted by the Governor, House of Representatives and State Senate honoring the caregivers at San Juan Regional Medical Center for stepping up to face the challenge of caring for patients with COVID-19 and continuing to serve on the front line in the battle with COVID-19.