Iredell Health System President & CEO John Green and Vice President for Medical Services Dr. Joseph Mazzola discuss the impact of the latest wave of COVID-19 cases on the hospital and community.
As of Monday morning, all 11 of the COVID-19 patients in the ICU were unvaccinated.
My daughter is an RN in ICU. She is stressed to her limit. Are you providing any type of counseling or emotional support for these nurses? I am very concerned about my daughter’s mental health at this time.
Hi Doris,
Please thank your daughter from all of us for everything she’s doing. Please Google “Mental Health Resources for Healthcare Workers” and you will find a ton of free resources that your daughter can call on.
All the best,
Chris
I am grateful for this CEO and VP of Iredell Health System interview. It’s a shame that other media groups haven’t done the same things, interviewing CEOs from Novant, Atrium, OrthoCarolina, Duke, UNC, Baptist, Moses Cone, Mission etc. as well. (Perhaps I missed them, but I have been trying to watch for guidance.) Imagine if all the NC healthcare CEOs came together in unison in June and had addressed the school board members throughout the state in public letters, articles, press conferences, via Zoom, on radio, via social media. Could things be different now? It seems to me that the N.C. healthcare system and the NC educational system are on the brink of collapse, but so many citizens don’t seem to be aware of this yet. The tips given are essential for every citizen to comprehend, and we need more helpful interviews like this one! Good job Iredell Free News. CEOS use your voices, PR teams, media connections and millions to be societal leaders and save N.C. and your staff, please!
Administrators, physicians and nurses from all the health systems listed above have done many interviews, statements and Zoom town halls about what is going on as well as using their health system and personal LinkedIn and other social media sites. When asking “could things be different now” it is not because the health systems and hospitals haven’t been consistently telling the public what is going on since March 2020. Yes, hospitals are getting very full, very fast now. The staff are exhausted. The best way for the public to help and avoid a crisis is to get vaccinated, keep wearing masks indoors and tell your friends family and neighbors to do the same.
True, I agree that we need masks and vaccines. No doubt, CEOs have their work cut out for them. Yes, staff are exhausted and the staff-to-patient ratios aren’t what any of us would want right now. Quite a few N.C. facilities have struggled with their own Covid clusters. Sadly, some N.C. healthcare facilities are sometimes struggling to get their own staff vaccinated. This week, I heard about a woman in Western N.C. who wanted to get a mammogram but wanted to make sure that she would be able to get the mammogram from a vaccinated healthcare provider. She was told that she wouldn’t be allowed to get this information. Will she opt against the mammogram out of fear? Others are opting out of elective procedures. A healthcare leader in the eastern part of the state lamented that close to 50 percent of that facility’s staff wasn’t vaccinated yet. It seems to me that N.C. CEOs/top leaders struggle with public and staff Covid mitigation strategies.
Maybe the N.C. Hospital Association and other groups could get communication covid expert Frank Luntz (or a NC University media expert or NC PR team) to implement a statewide unified push. An easy ad would be one that shows the visual unity of the healthcare CEOs with their faces, their names and facilities from coast to mountains — and a brief joint powerful, passionate message which acknowledges new aspects of the current crisis. (Some citizens don’t trust government (NCDHHS), so this unified corporate message could reach an audience that tends to trust big business more). I really liked CEO John Green and Vice President for Medical Services Dr. Joseph Mazzola’s video (esp 4:14, 5:50 and 6:21), but the crisis is here, and we have so many citizens and even facility staff who aren’t taking all the actions needed to make things safer. The messaging must continue!