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Nearly a year ago, Jeffrey Flaks received a call on a Friday night that he was both expecting and dreading.
Flaks is president and chief executive officer of Hartford HealthCare, the health system that includes Hartford Hospital, and St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport, among other hospitals. Saturday will be the oneyear anniversary of the first COVID-19 patient in the Hartford HealthCare system.
During a virtual roundtable discussion Thursday, Flaks recalled the moment he learned about that patient, a woman in her early 80s. He said, as reports of COVID-19 cases throughout the country began to grew, he knew that Connecticut, and Hartford HealthCare, would be affected.
“In that moment, it became much more real,” he said.
He and other Hartford HealthCare officials recalled the early days of the pandemic and described the enormous steps forward that have been taken in the intervening year. Since that first patient came into the system, HHC’s hospitals, home care providers and other services have treated more than 9,500 people with COVID. In addition, the system has tested more than 900,000 people for COVID.
But the first weeks of the pandemic were jarring, even for those with years of experience in health care, said Keith Grant, HHC’s senior system director of infection prevention.
“This was the one time from a clinical perspective I think no one had the right answer,” Grant said.
Flaks agreed. He said one of the first things he did after learning of HHC’s first COVID case was to meet with staff. The newer staffers, Flaks said, were filled with excitement and anticipation at the coming challenge. However, older, more experience staff had a much different attitude, Flaks said.
“I looked into the eyes of some of most veteran members of our team,” he said. “I could see the discomfort and fear in their eyes.”
During Thursday’s roundtable, Flaks said the whole system struggled to meet the demands of the pandemic, and that St. Vincent’s, in particular, was “overwhelmed” in those early days. “The virus came up through New York into Fairfield County,” Flaks said. “In the early days, it was most intense in Fairfield County.”
He recalled shifting staff and equipment to St. Vincent’s from other HHC hospitals and moving patients out of St. Vincent’s into other hospitals in the system.
Indeed, collaboration has been key throughout the pandemic, said Audrey Silver, nurse manager in Hartford Hospital’s emergency department.
“I think it has expanded our creativity (and) our collaboration with other units has never been better,” she said.
Though Connecticut is still in the grips of the pandemic, Flaks and the other staff said HHC and the state in general are in a better place than they were a year ago. That’s partly because of the availability of multiple COVID-19 vaccines.
Flaks said HHC staff have administered at least 175,000 vaccines. In addition, about 66 percent of HHC employees have accepted the vaccine, said Dr. James Cardon, Hartford HealthCare’s chief clinical integration officer.
Looking back on the first year, Flaks said he’s learned many lessons and the system is adjusting in multiple ways, such as creating a larger stockpile of personal protective equipment.
Despite the pain and trauma of the past year, Flaks said he’s proud of the way the system responded to the pandemic. “This was a year filled with uncertainty and despair (and), at the same time, triumph and hopefulness,” he said.