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It’s not just a marketing gimmick: The people caring for Kansas City in a pandemic have produced some heroic achievements.
I’ve said it before and will again, how much I genuinely love the Heroes in Healthcare program and its mission to recognize excellence and extraordinary commitment to health, wellness and safety.
We enjoy these awards so much, we’ve built an entire series of celebrations around them. The opportunity to get to spend time with people in health-care careers has always been a great fringe benefit of telling their stories.
So we’ve been genuinely discouraged we’ve had to cancel the Heroes in Healthcare awards celebration—twice each—in 2020 and again in 2021, including the Kansas City Healthcare Reunion we planned last September at the Kansas City Monarchs Ballpark.
No industry realizes the need for our medical community, and especially those working on the front lines, to get a break from this pandemic, but this industry more than any other also does not want to risk attending what could become a spreader event—especially with the way that may be portrayed such by a terrible daily paper and sensational media outlets.
The profile of Ingram’s Heroes in Healthcare honorees is a unique one, and in our 19th year. After honoring more than 400 extraordinary health-care professionals, we’re more honored than ever to serve as the steward of this unique program.
In nearly all cases, our honorees and nearly all of the nominees come from noble means and have been infused since a young age with extraordinary work ethic and humanitarian compassion.
In a discussion with Dr. Dana Hawkinson at The University of Kansas Health System, he mentions this pandemic as a Super Bowl of sorts, in terms of the infection disease space. He also emphasized the physical and emotional strain and remarkable toll this two-year battle has levied on the hospital’s staff, a fight that has resulted in so many deaths and health challenges for patients.
The headlines generally are dominated by the number of Covid-19 cases and related deaths. The real story, to me, lies behind those numbers, in what hospitals and clinics are going through and doing to maintain the ability to serve our citizens, despite the strain placed on the direct care-givers and all levels of management. I find the Q&A with Terry Rusconi of KU Health (see Page 36) particularly interesting as he shares the playbook regarding how the hospital and health system have taken unprecedented steps to ensure patients receive the proper and often-times the immediate care they need, and bolster the staff providing that care.
More than a few hospital executives have been reluctant to single out any individuals for recognition in this climate.
Michelle and I learned the hard way about an aviation term called “false lift” a decade ago, when we were with a friend who was piloting his hot-air balloon and crashed into a tree about 100 feet above the ground near Springfield. The basket broke in half and the propane tanks fell to the ground, but by the grace of God, somehow we held on for what was an equally unfortunate crash landing. The reason I mention false lift is that the term seems to often come into play as it relates to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In recent days, there’s been a sense of relief—a slight one—in terms of the numbers of cases and deaths due to the pandemic. This sense of optimism is very good news for all but the victims of this terrible virus, and it’s very relieving news for the health-care community. They’ve certainly earned a breather.
A recurring theme in our coverage of the pandemic has been the way hospitals have fostered cross-departmental collaborations to deal with the massive patient volumes. The Power of Teams has become a theme of Ingram’s Heroes in Healthcare edition this and last year. To be honest, though it’s made selecting Heroes more challenging—more than a few executives have been reluctant to single out any individuals for recognition in this climate.
Before we announce the date of the Heroes in Healthcare celebration to recognize honorees from 2022 as well as those from the class of 2021 and 2020, we want to get our feet firmly planted on the ground and to have the buy-in from administrators who have a solid grasp on trends associated with the pandemic.
We still like the idea of expanding this celebration to a larger outdoor venue and bringing front-line workers and heroes from all areas within health care together to celebrate the end of the pandemic—or at least reaching a manageable drop-off in the disease burden.
This pandemic has disrupted every phase of life as we know it. I commend all who have adapted to serve and continue to function through the most challenging era of our lifetimes.
It is with great pleasure that we recognize 21 extraordinary professionals associated with health care, and also honor 10 remarkably accomplished Icons of Education in this issue. Ingram’s February edition is my personal favorite issue of the year and after getting to know the genuine Heroes in Healthcare and Icons of Education for going on two decades.
We hope you agree.
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