San Juan Regional Health

More than a year and a half into the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, San Juan Regional Medical Center is documenting our community hospital’s response with a new website called Our COVID Journal.  

During the unprecedented and ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, San Juan Regional Medical Center’s caregivers stepped up to face the challenge of caring for patients with COVID-19, serving on the frontlines of the pandemic with bravery, commitment and compassion. Our COVID Journal documents the many incredible ways our caregivers and community came together in the midst of tragedy, tirelessly helping others in this great time of need. The website, https://www.sanjuanregional.com/covid-journal, includes:

·        LENS- A collection of videos we created beginning in late February 2020 to update our community on the pandemic and the status of the hospital, a comprehensive video chronicling our COVID experience to date, and moving photo essays of our caregivers working in full PPE to care for our community during this unprecedented time

·        STORIES- Our voices, our experiences as we have seen the effects of COVID, both as caregivers helping patients at the bedside and as an organization providing essential services to our community.

·        COMMUNITY- Battling COVID-19 has truly been a community effort. These stories share some of the inspiring ways our community has come together in this time of need to support our community owned hospital.

·        BROADCASTS and PODCASTS- As experts in healthcare, our frontline caregivers and hospital leaders played an important role sharing accurate, trusted information with our community during the pandemic.  

“I have seen so much sadness and so many challenges. But, woven into this story, I have seen such incredible strength and resilience too.  And I believe there is so much hope for the future.” – Dr. Erin Philpott, Hospitalist 

“For me, a lot of what gave me hope was the little things. Coming to a shift when it was very busy but then you saw that a local restaurant bought you lunch, or a nurse who worked on another floor came to the unit to help in whatever aspect they were able to. Seeing everyone come together like that is really what gave me hope.” – Devin Lewis, ICU RN

“There is so much to be proud of when you look at what the community has done. From financial support for our PPE, to homemade masks made by countless people throughout the community. Internally, at SJRMC, what makes me proud are the people; our caregivers; the persistence and tremendous amount of effort and hard work that’s gone on to support this response everywhere.” – Jeff Bourgeois, President/CEO

We hope you take the time to check out our collection, Our COVID Journal, online at https://www.sanjuanregional.com/covid-journal and we thank each of you, our community partners, for the many ways you’ve come together and helped us. While the COVID-19 pandemic isn’t going away any time soon, our commitment to working together for the health and safety of our community will help us persevere. 

As we enter a new phase of the pandemic with the rapid spread of the COVID-19 Delta variant, we ask that you continue to support our caregivers. We have all experienced things we never thought we would during this unprecedented time, yet our caregivers, especially those at the frontlines, continue to show up and care for our community in this time of great need. Your support and encouragement means a great deal to each of them. Please, reach out to the healthcare heroes you know personally, or send a note of gratitude to our caregivers at thankacaregiver@sjrmc.net.