Page 33 - Healthcare News Sept.-Oct. 2020

HEALTHCARE HEROES OF WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS
Maggie Eboso
Infection Control and Prevention Coordinator, Mercy Medical Center
This Administrator Has
Become a Calming Voice in
the Midst of the Pandemic MBy George O’Brien
aggie Eboso was in the grocery store when the first text message came in on the eve- ning of March 26.
Soon, there were three more, and as her phone kept pinging, it became increasingly clear that her job as Infection Control coordinator at Mercy Medical Center was about to change substantially, and that
she and the hospital were entering uncharted waters. Indeed, the first suspected COVID-19 patients — two
young women who had recently returned to the area from China — had arrived at Mercy, and there were questions that needed to be answered. Lots of them.
So began an ultra-intense period that has tested Eboso in all kinds of ways, but also taken her career to a new and different plane, one in which she has emerged as a
“The biggest thing that we saw with this whole thing was the fear. We were all thinking, ‘yes, we’ll take care of you, and we’ll treat you,’ but at the end of the day, we all had families and children that we were going home to. So while, yes, we all signed up for this, and this is what we do, people were still afraid — they wanted assurances that they could do their jobs and still go home and not bring this back to their families.”
Healthcare Hero.
Those frantic first days would set the tone for the weeks
and months to come, during which Eboso would take on
a number of responsibilities, many of them new — from coaching staff on the proper use of personal protective equipment (PPE) to helping all those at the hospital navigate a rough sea of changing guidelines and constantly changing information; from advocating for adequate supplies of PPE and working with colleagues to be good stewards of that precious equipment to providing a much-needed sense
Dani Fine Photography
OCTOBER 2020 A21
2020 HEALTHCARE HEROES INNOVATION IN
HEALTH/WELLNESS