Columbia Memorial Hospital | Annual Report 2020

By Felicia Struve, Marketing & Communications Coordinator Providing high-quality medical care to the people who need it when they need it is like building a three-legged stool. If one leg is short, the whole thing falls down. Caring for our caregivers CMH’s facilities and medical equipment make up two legs of the stool. While securing ventilators and personal protective equipment (PPE) was challenging during 2020, our biggest concern was taking care of the third leg of the stool — caregivers. Like many people in our community and across the country, our caregivers found themselves managing multiple crises at once in March. Lacking child care and losing income from furloughs left many caregivers struggling to both come to work and pay the bills. “I knew we needed to do something quickly to help, so I put Foundation Director Mark Kujala to the task of easing burdens our caregivers were facing,” says CEO Erik Thorsen. “His priority No. 1 was to help caregivers in need weather this stormy time.” Kujala established and led a caregiver support team that worked to ease COVID-19-related problems with the goal of helping staff continue caring for our community. The team worked on child care, distributing food and supplies, providing emotional support, preventing burnout and easing financial hardship. In several cases, the short-term solutions developed by this group have proven so beneficial that they’ve been made permanent. It takes a village When schools and day cares closed, it became vital that we help caregivers with young children find alternate child care quickly. CMH worked with Warrenton Prep and the Astoria School District to create child care options for CMH families. “When COVID-19 first hit and schools closed, child care became one of our biggest concerns. But the Warrenton and Astoria School Districts and Astoria Parks Department stepped up to help our medical staff get back to work so our community could be prepared for what might come next,” says Kujala. Even after day cares began reopening in mid-summer, there were very few options for families, especially for those with infants. In July, The Astorian reported that only five of 12 child care centers had reopened. To help increase child care spaces, the hospital donated $10,000 to the city-run Lil’ Sprouts Academy. This was matched by a grant from the Samuel S. Johnson Foundation. These funds allowed Lil’ Sprouts to renovate and move to the Astoria Yacht Club, where they can accommodate up to 80 children — nearly double their original capacity. The hospital also established a child care stipend in late summer. This benefit became permanent as a monthly flexible spending account contribution by the hospital for caregivers who qualify based on income. for the Foundations Mark Kujala, CMH Foundation Director Erik Thorsen, CEO 10 HEALTH COMPASS 2020 ANNUAL REPORT