It happened on Friday the 13th, which is only fitting, really.
That was the day in March 2020 in which St. Tammany Health System’s flagship St. Tammany Parish Hospital received verification that its first suspected COVID-19 patient had, indeed, contracted the then-novel coronavirus.
It was an unsettling time. With so little known then about how the virus worked – and even how it spread – it upended the world, prompting extended global lockdowns and thrusting healthcare professionals onto the front lines of what will be remembered as one of the most far-reaching and acute healthcare crises of our times.
That included the doctors, nurses and other care providers at St. Tammany Parish Hospital, who continued to show up every day and do what they always do: care for the community they took an oath to serve.
Which brings us to today’s 67th installment in our 70-part series chronicling St. Tammany Health System’s history.
Installment No. 67: When COVID came calling
Today’s artifact: A collection of COVID-era miscellany, including a bag of tags affixed daily to colleague IDs – each marked with its owner’s body temperature – during the height of the COVID pandemic.
Why they are significant: In everything, there is opportunity to be found – even in something as disruptive as a global pandemic.
And, so, while the arrival of COVID-19 on the Northshore brought with it cause for great anxiety, it also delivered an opportunity for St. Tammany Health System to once more demonstrate its dedication to caring for the community not only in good times but also – and maybe especially – when dark clouds gather.
It was an opportunity our colleagues embraced with enthusiasm, stoicism and professionalism.
Elsewhere, most of the world’s population found themselves locked down in self-isolation. News outlets underscored the depth of the tragedy with daily reports on the number of people claimed by COVID.
At St. Tammany, however, front-line caregivers and other essential personnel got up each morning and willingly confronted the COVID threat, which for a time felt like something ripped straight from the plot of a horror movie.
Upon their arrival at the hospital each day, they were screened for symptoms of the highly contagious virus – including having their temperature taken and recorded on a disposable tag that was then attached to their ID badge – before forging once more into the breach.
That’s not to say they did so without trepidation. There was so little known about COVID in those early days that it was an often-uneasy time inside the hospital’s growing COVID units.
But good healthcare professionals are accustomed to adversity, and they know through experience to put their head down during such times and let their training and instincts take over.
That’s exactly what STHS’s frontline caregivers did, and with the sort of compassion and innovation for which the health system has built its name. Whatever COVID threw at them, St. Tammany Health System colleagues and physicians were ready to field it, over and over again.
Today, the worst of the COVID pandemic feels surreal, almost as if it were a big, long, bad dream. But those tags and other COVID-19 artifacts serve as a reminder that it was all too real and that St. Tammany Health System was up to the challenge – just as it will be when the next crisis comes calling.
Do you have a St. Tammany Parish Hospital story or item to share? We’d love to hear about it! Email us at CommDept@stph.org.
Next week – Installment No. 68: Ghosts of STHS Christmases past
Last week – Installment No. 66: Where y’at?