FOCUS ON
f r o n t l in e r s Matt King, M.D., Critical Care Physician
Mike Newhouser, Grocery Clerk
As Gallatin faced an unprecedented lockdown during the COVID-19 crisis, firefighters, police officers, and healthcare workers weren’t the only ones serving on the front lines. They were joined by grocery clerks, restaurant workers, and others serving in essential worker roles. This article tells the story of eight Gallatin residents who found themselves in frontline roles during the great pandemic of 2020.
M a t t K in g , M .D .
- SUMNER REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER What does a doctor in a critical care unit do during a pandemic? Dr. Matt King can answer that question. He has been vice chief of medical staff at Sumner Regional Medical Center since 2019 and medical director of the hospital’s critical care unit since 2015. Before COVID-19, Dr. King worked as an intensi ist a h sician s eci ca trained to take care of critically ill patients. He worked exclusively in the critical care unit with no outpatient responsibilities.
management of the coronavirus,” Dr. King said. “They could see it coming. In early February, they started stockpiling personal protective equipment. They were able to procure some things that later became scarce, including air scrubbers to keep the virus from spreading.”
unit. “During the early days of the outbreak, we were trying to minimize the number of workers that came in contact with coronavirus,” he explained. “I took the rst r un an r e f r three weeks straight so the medical center’s other two intensivists could limit their potential contact with the virus.”
As medical director of the critical care unit, it was Dr. King’s job to coordinate staf n in the ne is ati n
One of the biggest challenges Dr. King faced involved a COVID-19 outbreak at a local nursing home. “We took in close
As the COVID-19 situation loomed on the horizon, things started to change. Fortunately, Sumner Regional Medical Center was ready. A previously unused intensive care unit was repurposed as an isolation unit for coronavirus patients. “Our management team had some pretty incredible foresight in terms of
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