INOVA COMMUNITY TRIUMPHS OVER 2020 ADVERSITY Your philanthropic leadership as one of our Inova Visionaries has been essential to meeting the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. This issue highlights the importance of your gifts in action and showcases Faces of Gratitude – snapshots from our grateful community for the many ways you protect and support vital frontline workers. Thank you!
Inova Meets the Challenges of COVID-19 The unexpected events of 2020 stretched Inova’s limits in every way – as an organization committed to excellence in care, as compassionate medical professionals and as ordinary people responding to an extraordinary situation at work and at home.
Because of its leadership donors, Inova was able to continue advancing its mission of delivering excellent healthcare, while keeping patient and team member safety its top priority. Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, every team member, including its brave frontline responders, was inspired and humbled by an incredible outpouring of support. Inova is grateful beyond words for this dedication, which helps in so many ways. Here are just a few of the many milestones Inova Visionaries helped Inova achieve in 2020: • During the pandemic, members from all areas of our community raised more than $4.8 million for emergency preparedness and $1.2 million for COVID-related research. • Local businesses and business partners protected 19,000 Inova frontline heroes by donating over 221,000 masks and other forms of PPE. They also provided 58,873 meals, snacks, and drinks for team members, valued at $622,973. • The Twig, the Junior Auxiliary which supports Inova Alexandria Hospital, donated $100,000 for emergency preparedness efforts. • The Colangelo Family, Raytheon Technologies, Biomed and Loudoun Public Schools provided iPads for telehealth that allowed team members to monitor COVID-19 patient respiration and oxygen levels remotely and enabled isolated patients to “visit” with loved ones. • We received and shared thousands of messages of gratitude, notes, texts, videos, emails, and drawings that have sustained and inspired frontline workers throughout the crisis. Inova has vaccinated more than 20,000 team members and healthcare workers and is working with state and local health departments to vaccinate essential workers in our community.
FACES OF GRATITUDE
Thank you for your continued support as an Inova Visionaries member during this time of national crisis and for the essential role you play in our Inova community. Thousands of messages of support, meals and snacks, donations of PPE and other needed equipment helped keep our Inova healthcare heroes strong during COVID-19.
Physicians Pioneer New Standards for Patient Care As COVID-19 challenged the way we traditionally deliver medical care, donor support provided critical funding that allowed Inova to innovate on the fly, acquire essential personal protective equipment and adopt new protocols to ensure the safety of patients and providers at each of our facilities. Because cancer treatment simply cannot wait, our Inova Schar Cancer Institute remained fully open to provide essential care, including surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. Because patients undergoing immunitycompromising treatments have higher risk of complications from contagious illnesses, Inova Schar joined 85 other cancer centers and organizations to form the COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium (CCC19). The Consortium collected data and studied the unique effects of COVID-19 on cancer patients and led national efforts to determine the most effective treatment standards during the pandemic.
FACES OF GRATITUDE
“Compassion Cart” Delivers Smiles to Frontline Medical Workers To support hospital team members during COVID-19, “Compassion Carts” are wheeled to each unit at Inova’s hospitals twice a week to distribute treats like handwritten thank you cards, candy and lip balm to doctors, nurses, techs and aides. “The meaning behind it is: ‘We care about you.’ And we want to take a moment to take an intentional pause, for us to say, ‘How are you doing?” explains Jamie Gentile, Inova’s Director of Child Life Services. With the program, “We’re highlighting to our teammates that they’re taking care of each other very well during these times, thanking them for that and thanking them for taking care of our patients as well,” said Stephanie Herbert, Director of Inova Well.
Inova physicians also played a key role in helping to define national care standards. Mateo Ziu, MD, Medical Director of Inova Brain and Spine Tumor Program and Medical Director of Neuro-Oncology at Inova Schar Cancer Institute, served as a senior author of care standards for patients with glioma, a serious brain cancer. Shawna Willey, MD, Peterson Chair of Breast Cancer Research at Inova Schar and President of American Society of Breast Surgeons, helped author recommendations for clinicians on how to prioritize care for breast cancer patients. To keep our wider community informed, Inova also added a special COVID-19 advisory section to the Inova.org website with information on symptoms, self-assessment, testing, telehealth virtual visits and patient and visitor information.
NEW “MOTEW MINUTE” VIDEO UPDATES KEPT PHYSICIANS INFORMED To communicate rapidly evolving care standards and precautions for frontline workers, Inova began regular video updates summarizing key information.
Stephen Motew, MD, Chief, Clinical Enterprise of Inova Health System, launched a video blog for physicians called the “Motew Minute.” The periodic updates provide an overview of Inova’s response to COVID-19. “My goal is to ensure that all physicians within our community understand what we’re doing to keep Inova patients, team members and the community safe,” Dr. Motew explained.
More National Accolades for Our Work! Inova hospitals once again received national acclaim in 2020. These are accolades we would not have earned without strong support from leadership donors like you.
Patient Safety Inova Health System rated “A” for
Patient Safety for the fifth time in a row by the Leapfrog Group, an independent hospital watchdog organization. Nursing Excellence Inova Fairfax Hospital, Inova Fair Oaks and Inova Loudoun were each designated as a Magnet Hospital, the highest honor for nursing excellence awarded by the American Nurses Credentialing Center. Cardiac Care Inova was recognized by the American College of Cardiology ACC in the “Best Hospitals” issue of U.S. News & World Report as one of only 72 top health systems in the U.S. providing top cardiac care in 2020. Life Support Inova Fairfax Medical Campus was named a Gold Level Center of Excellence in Life Support by the Extracorporeal Life Support Organization. The therapy achieved exemplary results in support of the COVID-19 pandemic in those patients with endstage respiratory failure and is now available on-site at all five Inova hospitals and a large network of outpatient physician practices. Generous gifts from our leadership donors and community help make achievements like these possible. Thank you for helping provide the technology, additional training and emotional support that powers our patient care.
Inova Schar Cancer Institute Expansion Inova Schar Cancer Institute’s physicians, therapists and other team members are averaging at least 600 patients a day on the Inova Fairfax Hospital campus. In 2019, 19% of Inova Schar’s patients traveled from Loudoun County for treatment. Next spring, these patients won’t have to travel to Fairfax, but can instead receive care at the new Inova Schar Cancer Institute location on the Inova Loudoun Hospital campus.
In 2019, approximately 19% of all Inova cancer patients traveled from Loudoun County. This full-service center will provide patients with access to Inova’s nationally ranked cancer treatments even closer to home. Our multi-disciplinary team of oncologists, radiation therapists and surgeons will be centralized together in one place, to more easily collaborate as they provide expert patientcentered cancer care. The new center is a testament to the growth of our cancer program and the support of our community philanthropists who understand the need to provide Inova Schar with the flexibility to grow in order to meet patient needs. For those who have already given to support this special project or may be able to help with the effort by making a special one-time gift, thank you. Visionaries like you help Inova retain its leadership role nationally and in the region for medical excellence. Inova Schar Cancer Institute is a department of Inova Fairfax Hospital.
FACES OF GRATITUDE
Ryan and Heather Zimmerman launched Pros for Heroes with the support of 50 professional athletes, raising almost $400,000 to support healthcare teams and local businesses, while donating more than 15,000 meals to frontline heroes and their families.
Innovative FACT Program Supports Victims of Intimate Partner Violence Sadly, sexual violence remains a pervasive problem in the U.S. Research indicates that 1 in 5 women and 1 in 6 men are the victims of sexual violence. COVID-related economic pressures have further exacerbated the incidence of domestic violence, as people deal with isolation, stress, job loss, increased alcohol consumption and economic losses. The Inova Charles B. and Betty G. Ewing Forensic Assessment and Consultation Team (FACT) was created to help victims and support the criminal justice system in addressing this widespread problem and is the only program of its kind in Northern Virginia. The Ewing family continues to support this important work, including expanding services into Loudoun County. Inova’s FACT team includes specially trained nurses and physicians who provide medical care and forensic evidence collection for adult and child victims of sexual and physical violence. Having access to a domestic violence forensic exam, even if the victim is not yet ready to engage with law enforcement, can help create a medical, legal record of the abuse experienced so that when they are ready to take action, there is proof of the trauma they have been living with. This important work supports empowerment and healing for victims, and also helps create a safer community. As a donor, you are essential to providing this valuable service that protects women, men and especially children at risk for sexual violence. Thank you for helping provide a solution to this important national problem.
2020 By the Numbers: Despite last year’s challenges, our dedicated medical staff worked through long and extended shifts, newly enacted safety protocols and uncertainty to ensure that our patients still received the care they needed. Here are the major milestones we reached together: • We raised over $200,000 to purchase toys as part of Poppy’s Toy Drive. • 88,105 patients admitted to Inova hospitals • 346,128 hospital emergency room cases • 34,878 cancer patients treated • Hundreds of survivors of abuse treated by the Inova Ewing FACT department • 17,871 babies delivered • More than 5,300 COVID-19 patients discharged, with many more thousands treated without being admitted Thank you for your dedication and continued leadership as we move forward. We look forward to making more history together in 2021.
FACES OF GRATITUDE
COVID-19 brought the Inova community together in new ways, as people of all ages joined together to celebrate strength in the face of adversity. Thank you for helping inspire our community by taking a lead along with other Inova Visionaries.
Inova is a nonprofit community organization.
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