Mosaic hospital leader express appreciation to community

By Nate Blackford, Mosaic Medical Center – Maryville president

The past two weeks at Mosaic Medical Center – Maryville have been incredibly busy. And I am incredibly proud of our team, our community and our partners. Let me explain.

On February 19, we hosted our annual St. Francis Foundation Gala. But, due to COVID-19, it was anything but normal. Truth be told, it was better than normal. It was exceptional. But back to my message. We were forced to take a temporary detour from our large, in-person event and were relegated to a virtual event. However, this year’s event exceeded our wildest expectations thanks to you, our community.

This year’s focus was on raising money and awareness for mental health initiatives and you absolutely showed up in support of that cause. We estimate over 500 people participated online and collectively gave over $210,000 to this important cause. All I can say is “Wow!” and “thank you.” I continue to be amazed at the generosity of this community. Together, as a community, we will continue to address the physical and mental health needs of the communities we serve.

On February 23, The Joint Commission (TJC) showed up unannounced for our triennial hospital survey and inspection. In short, TJC is our accrediting body and their visit is critical to our ongoing operations and assurance that both Medicaid and Medicare will continue to pay us for our services.

A team from TJC “looked under the hood” of our organization for three full, intense days. Not surprisingly, our team and organization performed exceptionally well. As a matter of fact, the lead surveyor, who is a cardiothoracic surgeon from the upper Midwest, said it is “distinctly uncommon” for TJC to find so few opportunities for improvement and went on to say, “you are better than fine, you are very good.”

I am proud to be part of such a great medical center. We have an awesome team of providers and caregivers at Mosaic Medical Center – Maryville.

Finally, on February 26, we hosted our fifth COVID-19 mass vaccine clinic at the Hughes Fieldhouse on the campus of Northwest Missouri State where we gave over 1,100 doses of the vaccine. To date, we have administered a total of 4,028 doses, first and second, to over 2,700 individuals.

At this point, we believe most in the current tiers of eligibility who want the vaccine have been able to get it. We are very thankful for our partnership with Northwest Missouri State and the Nodaway County Health Department. Together, we are pleased to report that over 17 percent of Nodaway County residents have received the vaccine. This puts us in the top 15 percent of all Missouri counties.

Also last week, the State of Missouri announced that, “Phase 1B – Tier 3 of the state’s COVID-19 Vaccine Plan will be activated on Monday, March 15.” According to the press release from the governor’s office, “This includes those who keep the essential functions of society running, including K-12 educators and school employees; child care providers; grocery store employees; and energy, food, agriculture, and other critical infrastructure workers, among others.”

We have already started planning for this next phase of vaccinations and will be providing updates through this news outlet and our social media pages. Information will include how to register with dates and times of the mass vaccination events.

Finally, more good news. Although COVID-19 is still a real threat in our area, we are seeing a significant decrease in both our COVID-19 positivity rate and hospitalizations. I would encourage you to continue to practice risk mitigation measures to ensure we don’t see another spike while we work to get more and more community members vaccinated.

Again, I want to say thank you…. Thank you to our community. Thank you to our caregivers. And thank you to our partners. We are better together.