The Washington State Hospital Association (WSHA) on Nov. 11 presented MultiCare Health System with its 2020 Community Health Leadership Award for the health system’s COVID-19 drop team, which helped test for coronavirus and control coronavirus outbreaks in care facilities in and around Spokane, Wash.
Upon being called for assistance, the care team arrived on site in community settings in less than 24 hours, with a team consisting of a care coordinator, an infection preventionist and between one and four physicians. Administrators at these facilities were often desperate to contain the virus outbreaks, which had come from infected staff members.
The drop team brought in extra PPE to leave with the facility as well as testing supplies, which were used to test all staff and residents. The tests were then analyzed by the University of Washington. Meanwhile, the infection preventionist often spent hours on the ground and on the phone setting up COVID units and training staff on how to safely navigate the outbreak.
“COVID obviously rocked our whole world this year,” WSHA President and CEO Cassie Sauer said. “When the first outbreaks were reported in residential care facilities in our state, we saw just how devastating it can be. The value of the work done by MultiCare’s COVID drop team is incalculable. This was a life-saving operation in Spokane, and it represents a larger shift we’ve been seeing across the health care community in recent years, where hospitals and health systems are actively going into their communities more often to provide community benefit.”
About MultiCare Heath System
MultiCare is a not-for-profit health care organization with more than 18,000 team members, including employees, providers and volunteers. MultiCare has been caring for our community for well over a century, since the founding of Tacoma’s first hospital and today is the largest community-based, locally governed health system in the state of Washington.
MultiCare’s comprehensive system of health includes numerous primary care, urgent care and specialty services — including MultiCare Indigo Urgent Care, Pulse Heart Institute and MultiCare Rockwood Clinic, the largest multispecialty clinic in the Inland Northwest region.
MultiCare’s network of care includes 10 hospitals:
- MultiCare Allenmore Hospital, Tacoma
- MultiCare Auburn Medical Center, Auburn
- MultiCare Covington Medical Center, Covington
- MultiCare Deaconess Hospital, Spokane
- MultiCare Good Samaritan Hospital, Puyallup
- Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital, Tacoma
- MultiCare Tacoma General Hospital, Tacoma
- MultiCare Valley Hospital, Spokane Valley
- Navos Behavioral Health Hospital
- Wellfound Behavioral Health Hospital
