Across the country we have seen community members mobilize to volunteer, donate, and produce needed medical supplies and equipment for our hospitals throughout the pandemic. Healthcare Anchor Network members’ anchor mission strategies of community engagement, volunteerism, and local inclusive procurement positioned them to move swiftly. Some examples include HAN members Intermountain Healthcare and University of Utah Health, along with several faith and nonprofit groups, creating ProjectProtect which is a grassroots initiative that enlisted more than 50,000 Utahns to produce half a million medical-grade masks for frontline caregivers treating COVID-19 patients and for vulnerable community members.
HAN member Cleveland Clinic’s COVID-19 Response Campaign received commitments from more than 100 companies for 485,000 gloves, 318,000 surgical masks, 293,000 face shields and 20,000 cloth masks. The health system, along with HAN member Yale New Haven Hospital, also worked with the Ohio Amish community to produce PPEs. HAN member Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia partnered with Faber Liquor, a local distillery in Quakertown, PA, to manufacture an alcohol-based sanitizer.
From the New York Times article:
“We’re a very individualistic society and the Amish have a lot to teach us about community,” said Mr. Smucker [President of Keim, a local lumber mill and home goods business], who was raised in a Mennonite household. Amid a pandemic, “I think the shift has got to go from ‘I,’ to ‘we.’”