PEOPLE
TOM ROBERTSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, VIZIENT RESEARCH INSTITUTE
Into the line of fire Tracing the footsteps of heroes
Heroes come in all shapes and sizes. The dictionary defines a hero as a person
families of their own, who worry about
who is admired for courage, outstanding achievements or noble qualities. Common
them and about whom they worry, but
synonyms for the adjective heroic are bold, courageous and valiant.
who put it on the line every day in spite of being tired, in spite of being scared. Healers. Caregivers. Sources of comfort.
When I think of heroes, my mind
Ports in the storm.
tends to focus on courage, and more
Ordinary folks who we might see at the
Heroes.
specifically on courage in the face of im-
grocery store, or whose car we park next
Before the international outbreak of
minent personal danger. People like Audie
to at our kids’ soccer games, who lay it
the virus, I had just begun reading a book
Murphy, the most decorated soldier of
all on the line for the rest of us when
about an obscure Polish resistance agent
World War II, or Eddie Rickenbacker, the
disasters strike.
named Witold Pilecki, who got himself
greatest American flying ace of World I,
44
in response to emergency distress calls.
There are heroes among us as we face
incarcerated in the concentration camp
or the Tuskegee Airmen, who overcame
this global outbreak of the COVID-19
at Auschwitz on purpose. To establish a
prejudice and social barriers to put their
virus. Doctors, nurses and lab technicians
bridge to the outside. To get word to the
lives at risk as fighter pilots.
standing in the doorways as patients are
world from inside the barbed wire. The
We lost more than 400 first respond-
wheeled in. Patient transporters, dietary
title of the book says it all in two simple
ers at ground zero on 9/11 – firefighters,
staff who bring meals, and maintenance
words: The Volunteer.
police officers and emergency medical
staff who sterilize treatment spaces
technicians who were last seen running
before patients arrive and after they leave.
of the fight ... to the caregivers and first
into buildings just before they collapsed.
Long-term care staff who protect the vul-
responders who run into the line of fire
Coast Guard rescue crews who head out
nerable elderly, and ICU staff who care
not away from it ... to the heroes, we say,
of safe harbors into treacherous seas
for the most desperately ill. All folks with
thank you.
To the volunteers on the frontlines
June 2020 | The Journal of Healthcare Contracting
