Intermountain had already hired 16 caregivers to work at Spanish Fork Hospital this spring when the decision was made to postpone the hospital’s opening from October 2020 to April 2021 because of the pandemic. Of those 16 caregivers, 12 have been redeployed to help in many different areas of need for more than six months, putting in more than 3,600 hours on frontline shifts.
The redeployed Spanish Fork caregivers have helped at Intermountain Medical Center, Riverton Hospital, Alta View Hospital, American Fork Hospital, and Utah Valley Hospital, as well as at several community testing sites. They’ve helped in some of the areas of greatest need around the system. The payment for most of their work was donated out of the Spanish Fork Hospital budget.
“What impresses me the most is they’ve never complained,” says Megan Johnson, RN, Spanish Fork nurse administrator. “They come back to the office with exciting stories about the patients and caregivers they interacted with, as well as ideas for building excellence at Spanish Fork. They feel a sense of pride for the work they see going on throughout the corporation and enjoy the opportunity to give back. They exemplify ‘One Intermountain.’”
Here’s a list of the 12 redeployed Spanish Fork caregivers and what they’ve been doing while redeployed:
- Taylor Goodman, lab manager: Processing COVID tests at IMC
- Becki Barratt, RN, Labor & Delivery/Mom Baby manager: COVID testing
- Cassie Purkey, RN, Emergency Department manager: Led implementation of influenza vaccine in the ED
- Brenda Monk, Central Processing supervisor: ProjectProtect masks
- Cesar Garcia, RN, med/surg manager: COVID testing and frontline ICU caregiver shifts
- Rhonda Carr, medical staff: Covered a vacant medical staff position at Riverton
- Scott Fox, OR manager: COVID testing
- Shelly Mitchell, Imaging manager: Covered a vacant manager position at U
- Zach White, pharmacy director: Covered a vacant Internal Process Control position
- Wendy Perkins, admin assistant: Utah Valley daily COVID reporting and covered for a Utah Valley admin out on leave
- Megan Johnson, RN, nurse administrator: Led corporate HUC project and COVID testing
- Josh Reese, OR equipment coordinator: Works three days per week covering shifts at Utah Valley