LECOM in the Epicenter Healthcare Community Responds to the Gravity of the Moment its way into cities and towns across Europe, and the insidious disease became a pandemic, leadership at St. John's Riverside began preparing, and preparing vigorously. Michael A. DiGiorno, DO, is a LECOM Regional Dean and an administrator at the hospital. He is a Class of 2000 LECOM graduate with more than 20 years of diverse experience, and he is board certified in internal medicine and nephrology. Dr. DiGiorno is charged with the integral role of advancing the LECOM education program. As the rapidly evolving public health situation deteriorated, leadership at St. John’s implemented precautions to safeguard its patients and staff, including limiting access to areas deemed high risk for potential exposure. These areas included the emergency department and medical intensive care unit (ICU). After consultation with clinical leadership at LECOM, St. John’s leadership decided to suspend clinical assignments for students on emergency medicine and medical ICU rotations for the remainder of the rotation block. LECOM students continued to attend all didactic conferences and workshops and maintained all aspects of an expanded online curriculum. Clearly, something was brewing. One could feel it; the sense of urgency was bubbling just below the surface. Continual communication was underway between LECOM and principles at St. John’s Riverside Hospital. Ronald J. Corti, President and CEO of the St. John's Riverside Hospital teamed with Dr. DiGiorno to keep LECOM apprised of the daily changes. Michael A. DiGiorno, DO, LECOM Regional Dean and Administrator of St. John's Riverside Hospital. Physicians understand urgency. They train for urgent situations. They prepare for the worst case scenarios. Their minds – skilled, alert, and competently honed – comprehend the gravity of a moment. For more than three grueling months, the medical teams at St. John’s Riverside Hospital in Yonkers, New York found themselves in the epicenter of the Coronavirus pandemic. St. John's Riverside Hospital is a Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) regional campus staffed with a comprehensive network of medical professionals, including faculty and residents (many of them LECOM alumni and scholars) dedicated to a tradition of service that spans generations. The hospital is a leader in providing quality, compassionate health care utilizing the latest, state-of-the-art medical technology. Several months ago, no one would have believed that the dire situation that happened in cities across the globe could happen in a place such as St. John’s Riverside Hospital. As the Coronavirus made
As the LECOM students transitioned into remote access learning, limiting their potential exposure to the virus, their offsite training reduced the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), that the hospital staff would need desperately in the coming days. As the situation devolved and New York State displayed the greatest number of Coronavirus cases in the country, Westchester County, (the county in which Yonkers is located), recorded the greatest number of cases in a single day, 98 out of 142 confirmed cases. As St. John’s Riverside Hospital began to see a rapidly increasing number of upper respiratory infection cases in their emergency department and outpatient facilities, Dr. DiGiorno reached out to LECOM for support. “Despite strict policies on usage, we are struggling to maintain adequate stock of critical supplies, such as ventilators, surgical masks, hand sanitizer, and N-95 masks,” he wrote. LECOM has a large number of clinical sites and affiliates, many of which were not facing the same virus numbers. LECOM began reaching out to assist in gathering supplies for St. John’s Riverside Hospital. “We know that every healthcare institution likely will face
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@1LECOM | LECOM CONNECTION 09
