Memorial Hermann Health Systems President and CEO reflects on year since pandemic hit Houston

HOUSTON - As we look back at the past year since the pandemic began in Houston, we caught up with the President and CEO of Memorial Hermann Health Systems to talk about lessons learned and how far we've come.

The first patient in Houston was diagnosed with COVID-19 one year ago this week. At that time, executives at local hospitals had been gearing up and preparing months before that, as they witnessed and studied the pandemic unfolding in other parts of the world.

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"One of the things that stands out in my mind is the high level of collaboration that has been in place among healthcare professionals around the world. Again we heard about this early on and before it ever came to this country, we started talking with colleagues that we know and other places around the world, and certainly we've talked to colleagues around the country. We've all worked together and we've seen incredible efforts of organizations and people coming together who previously had been more in competition than in collaboration," states Dr. David Callender.

It’s been a learning curve for everyone, especially trying to find effective treatments for an ever-changing novel virus.

"As we started, we really had no knowledge, we were making educated guesses about what this disease might do based on what we believed about pandemic flu. Clearly, COVID-19 is different from flu and so we've had to learn on the fly, and sometimes that's resulted in some changes and changes in our messaging has been a bit confusing for members of the public. So again, we've learned from those experiences too, so hopefully we're better prepared as we go forward and our delivery system for healthcare actually is improved in some way, so I think that could be helpful too," says Dr. Callender.

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Now Dr. Callender says vaccines are proving to be as effective in practice as they were in clinical trials.

"It’s just a wonderful feeling! Now we also understand, we have a long way to go to get vaccines into all of the arms that we'd like for them to go into. We're so pleased to be at this point."

Dr. Callender is thankful for healthcare workers who’ve shared not only their expertise but invested their emotions during this trying time.

"My colleagues, all across our system and across the country are my heroes. They are truly incredible with their dedication and their commitment," smiles Dr. Callender.

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That being said, he says the pandemic has taken a toll on medical workers.

"It's something that we've worried about as an organization. We've tried to think about the things that we can do to support our employees our physicians, understanding that there's this increased sense of loss associated with all that we do," explains Dr. Callender.

He goes on to say that it has been a year of learning, tweaking, and moving in the right direction to end the pandemic.

"It certainly has given us firsthand experience, particularly in a very connected world of how these things move, how they work, what they can do to people. So I think we'll be better prepared for the next one, and unfortunately, I think there may be a next one," states Dr. Callender.

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