Page 12 - 2020 Healthcare Heroes Program

HEALTHCARE HEROES OF WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
coordinating the system’s pandemic response, he drew national attention after penning an account of a rendezvous at a small mid-Atlantic airport, where he and his team brought a $3 million check to purchase a large shipment of face masks and N95 respirators — and were temporarily accosted by the FBI.
“We realized we were on our own,” Keroack said of those early days, noting that the health system also received PPE donations from the construction trades and local manufacturers, who had shifted to making such equipment.
It was a lesson to the region that local players could produce what they needed and not have to depend on a fractured global supply chain.
But he mostly applied the ‘hero’ designation to every frontline provider who continued to push past their health and safety anxieties and do their jobs. “They were able to do the right thing in spite of their fears, and are heroes in my book.”
That book includes story after story of collaborations Baystate forged in support of prompt community outreach, testing, education, and information, all with the goal of limiting
the spread of COVID-19 and helping make Massachusetts — one of the hardest-hit states in the pandemic’s early days — an eventual model of how to control it.
On the local level, Keroack participated in Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno’s weekly COVID-19 press briefings, leading the mayor to note that “Dr. Mark Keroack’s leadership and medical insight has truly been a great benefit
for our city of Springfield as we have worked together to defeat and mitigate the spread of this
virus.” Baystate also tested the homeless population and expanded testing to key neighborhoods in the city at the request of the state and local officials.
Keroack also convened calls with Westfield Mayor Don Humason regarding clusters of positive cases in Westfield’s Russian community and possible spread beyond its borders. Meanwhile, he conducted weekly calls with the Western Mass. legislative delegation and other
area hospital CEOs, while crafting a plan with state officials on how Baystate would provide surge beds for the region.
Mark Keroack (right) and U.S. Rep. Richard Neal take part in an outdoor roundtable on COVID-19 issues in the spring.
“I set up an independent
command center, and
every day at 7:30, we’d call a group of people who included hospital presidents, heads of medical groups, people from infection control, supply chain, finance, communications ... 15 people got on the Zoom meeting every day,” he said, adding that information from those sessions would be distributed as a bulletin at 11 a.m.
“It was the most widely read thing at Baystate. Everyone knew every day where we were.”
Keroack also served as the only Massachusetts hospital CEO appointed by Gov. Charlie Baker
to the state’s Reopening Advisory Board. “The Reopening Massachusetts plan needed to balance restarting commerce while avoiding a surge
of virus cases,” said Mike Kennealy, Secretary
of Housing and Economic Development. “Dr. Keroack’s medical expertise and healthcare- sector experience, and his perspective as a resident of Western Massachusetts, helped
Keroack
Continued on page A14
Kudos to the 2020 Healthcare Heroes!
A12 OCTOBER 2020
2020 HEALTHCARE HEROES
Staff Photo