Direct Line from Steve Edwards: 4/2/2021

April 2, 2021

COVID-19 vaccination update

More progress was made this week with COVID-19 vaccinations. The state of Missouri opened Phase 2 on Monday, which is the final stage before all Missourians 16 and older become eligible on April 9. Our vaccinations continued this week, bringing our number of total doses to nearly 65,000. We are encouraged by these numbers, but urge everyone to keep pressing forward with vaccinations. With low numbers of hospitalized COVID patients, we have been given the gift of time to get shots in arms before variants become more common in our communities.

In addition to our dedicated vaccination clinics, we now working with local businesses to deploy teams of vaccinators on-site. We have also started a waiting list for when there are doses of vaccine leftover from these events – such as because of no-shows – so we can call people quickly to come and get vaccinated. This list is open to any Missourians regardless of criteria who are 16+ because it’s done to eliminate waste of the vaccine. Anyone who is interested can get on the list by calling 417-269-INFO.

Dr. Trotman gave an update on Wednesday via Facebook Live about what we’re seeing with vaccines and the variants. If you would like to watch his presentation, please click here. We encourage you to share this information with your friends and family members who may be seeking more info about where things stand.

March Madness

We never hoped for many events that happened in the past year, but are glad we’ve been able to serve in so many ways when we were needed. To find out which efforts employees felt were the most significant, we created a Top Moments tournament, which was delivered “March Madness” style. We’re now in the Final Four and will soon have a ranked list of these 28 topics, which includes things such as construction of physical space related to COVID-19 care, opening of the new Cox Monett Hospital, and no layoffs despite financial challenges brought on by the pandemic. The past year has held moments of intense challenge and triumph, and many milestones we will never forget.

Amanda Belle’s Farm
The arrival of spring is obvious at Amanda Belle’s Farm, where our first growing season is well underway. I find this collaboration with Springfield Community Gardens to be heartwarming: The land where Cox South stands was once a farm, and here we are years later, with parts of it serving our community in a similar manner. We look forward to seeing food harvested from this garden, which we plan to expand in an effort to serve our patients and employees. In the meantime, click here to see the garden as it is now and all the progress that has been made.

Voice of the Patient
“Everybody in the physical therapist department at CoxHealth in Marshfield – I just started last week but they are so kind and caring. Cox has the best people in the health field.”

Vaccine Voices
“I was ecstatic to get my vaccine early especially when my awesome teammate was able to give it. It's been great having them demonstrate additional value that our pharmacy team can provide to CoxHealth besides bringing the medicine. Receiving the vaccine early helped to provide reassurance to family and friends to help end this pandemic,” – Cassie Heffern, ambulatory care pharmacist at CoxHealth.

I wish you a very peaceful Easter weekend,

Steve