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Letter to the Business Community:
We stand with our colleagues in the business community as you remake your businesses in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. As CEO of a 100+ bed behavioral health hospital I have experienced first-hand the challenges of providing safety for our staff, our patients and families, and our larger family of vendors, regulators, referral sources and others. We have remade our clinical and business operations to provide safe care for presumptive Covid-negative patients and we created a separate unit capable of treating Covid+ patients. We feel fortunate that the many actions we took very early on, including eliminating all non-essential visitation to our hospital, masking all patients and staff, performing temperature and symptom checks for both patients and staff, creating new cleaning protocols, and other inventions have minimized the impact of Covid on patients and staff. As we move past this first wave of Covid we are preparing for the longer-term consequences of the pandemic on hospital care. We are here to help should you or a loved one require care. We are also available to share whatever we can on the processes we created to increase safety for staff and patients.
We predict the presence of Covid-19 and its impact will increase the prevalence of mental health and substance use disorders in our community and we are here to help. We urge everyone to pay attention to higher stress levels for us all and to implement restorative activities on a daily basis.
I also want to acknowledge that we live in a time of community stress due not only to Covid-19 and its profound health and economic implications (including profound healthcare disparities) but also because of renewed attention and dialogue around community policing and race. While issues of race and safety and fairness have been with us virtually back to the earliest European presence in America, the events surrounding the recent death of George Floyd while being detained and arrested have both revealed and rekindled differences in safety and treatment of our fellow citizens of color. I feel compassion for anyone who has experienced such ill treatment and I also feel compassion for public safety personnel, including police officers, to whom we owe so much for the service they provide for us all. My hope is that this tragic loss and the peaceful protests that have emerged will serve to re-set expectations and behavior without deteriorating our common connection to each other. Having lived through earlier times of tension and unrest in this country I can say without reservation that I believe in an improved future in which we value and celebrate the richness of the diversity of experience and history we all bring to the human enterprise of living in community together. My hope is that the strength of our ties together will be renewed and appreciated in greater measure following this tragic loss of life.
With appreciation,
Michael P. Krupa, Ed.D.,
Founder and CEO-TaraVista Behavioral Health Center
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Worcester Business Journal provides the top coverage of news, trends, data, politics and personalities of the Central Mass business community. Get the news and information you need from the award-winning writers at WBJ. Don’t miss out - subscribe today.
Worcester Business Journal presents a special commemorative edition celebrating the 300th anniversary of the city of Worcester. This landmark publication covers the city and region’s rich history of growth and innovation.
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