Page 3 - 2020 annual report

Neighbors helping neighbors, heroes helping heroes
The connection between Southcoast Health and the South Coast region has always been deep and sustaining. But during the past year, in the face of an existential threat unlike any we have seen in a century, this connection became something even more: a collective call to action.
When it arrived in our region last February, the novel coronavirus encountered a health system and a community equipped to combat it. As Southcoast Health planned our pandemic response, countless community heroes — including local residents, business leaders, elected officials, and not-for-profit partners — stepped up to offer crucial support.
“I want to give recognition back to our entire community — everyone who has supported the frontline healthcare workers, and others who are essential workers,” says Matthew Bourke, an RN, in the St. Luke’s Emergency Department. “The assistance we received from the community helped us succeed in caring for our patients.”
This support would bolster Southcoast’s exhaustive — and exhausting — efforts to control and treat the virus. Individuals and businesses throughout the region generously donated tens of thousands of N95 masks, gloves, gowns, booties,
and face shields, making donations even before requests were issued.
You also lifted frontline heroes’ spirits with notes, snacks, and even potted plants, while displaying your support through everything from social media, to sidewalk drawings.
Michele Tsaliagos, an RN in the St. Luke’s Intensive Care Unit, speaks for many Southcoast employees when she resisted the label of hero. “I am doing what I’m meant to do as a nurse,” she said. “I am doing the job that I wanted to do my whole life — helping others.”
Yet she and her colleagues also welcomed the embrace they felt from the community.
“When the community came together with kind words, letters, and overall recognition of how much we’ve sacrificed to care
for others, it was incredibly uplifting,” said Kayla King, an RN in the Atwood Unit of Charlton Memorial.
The 2020 Southcoast Annual Report of Philanthropy is dedicated to you, the community who supported our #SouthcoastFrontlines throughout the pandemic — and continue to do so.
It is also a celebration of those same physicians and providers, nurses, medical staff, and support personnel who keep answering the bell day in and day out on your behalf.
Thank you.
Southcoast Health | 2020 Annual Report of Philanthropy 1