Facing Crises with Creativity
This is no time to stifle creativity. It is, in fact, a time to apply our best ideas to re-position, re-invest, and indeed to re-imagine the future of healthcare and higher education.
Your alma mater was at the epicenter of the events that reshaped our world this spring. The first—the sudden appearance of a novel coronavirus—caused fear, loss of income, illness, and death for many in the communities we serve. Our response was swift, as I’ll explain below.
We further responded to the calls for action against the historic disparities of systemic racism and its effects on our land.
COVID-19 hit hardest those who could afford it least. In our region, it struck hard at Black families, and especially hit retirement residences that are home to underserved populations. It unveiled, once again, the disparities in healthcare and access in American society. It showed us that those who campaign for justice are right: Systemic racism is a public health crisis.
At this time, our shared vision could not be more critical: To reimagine health, education, and discovery to create unparalleled value. I believe our future is bright despite our challenges, and that Jefferson will lead the transformation to a sustainable and equitable future.
That’s why I say this is no time to stifle creativity. You will see Jefferson thinking boldly on every page of this magazine. It is time to reimagine, and to value ideas that will move us forward.
The coronavirus pandemic has been called the ”iPhone moment“ for healthcare and higher education—it’s easy to see why. In both teaching and treatment, digital and mobile tools became crucial to serving students and patients during the lockdown.
At each stage, Jefferson did the right thing. The teams of frontline clinicians, staff—a shout out to environmental services—handled the most COVID-19 patients in the greater Philadelphia region. We did everything possible to be prepared for the challenge: We had PPE in stock, we had a powerful telehealth presence across all specialties already built, we went to universal masking immediately in our hospitals. We formed incident command centers across the University and Jefferson Health as early as January. By the time New York City had confirmed its first positive test, we were planning to shift to virtual learning directly after spring break.
Safety became our guiding principle. During the peak of the surge, we had 7,000 discharges of non-COVID patients, without any evidence of transmission of the virus to one of those patients. Zero. That’s how safe we were. Among our 15,000 clinical employees and physicians, we had less than 1 percent contract the virus. That’s substantially less than any other frontline system. Our hospitals were among the very few to allow loved ones to be present for births, and also for deaths—allowing many families to be by the bedside even for COVID-positive patients.
Because of this record of safety, we believe we can bring students back to campus in the fall. More importantly, we asked students themselves what they wanted moving forward and they resoundingly asked for the opportunity to learn with each other again. At the same time, our instruction will be hybrid. For those who are nervous about classrooms, learning can be virtual. For most, learning will be a combination—even for specialized laboratories, learning spaces, and tutoring.
To all of you: Thank you for your leadership, thank you for your help, thank you for spurring us to work harder and explore bold solutions. Jefferson is a creative nexus of individuals who see these tremendous challenges as the opportunity to build a better future. With you, I believe we can build the better world we want to see.
Stephen K. Klasko, MD, MBA
President, Thomas Jefferson University
CEO, Jefferson Health