It’s been five years since Covid-19 shut down the world, and Epicenter NYC just commemorated the milestone with a discussion at Elmhurst Hospital. We spotlighted the efforts of hospital CEO Helen Arteaga-Landaverde and Commonwealth Fund president Dr. Joseph Betancourt, who looked back on the pandemic response, looked ahead on the future of health equity, and shared their philosophy around abundant leadership.
Read our five key takeaways below, or watch the whole conversation here.
A lot of Covid-era innovations have endured.
“The pandemic was the worst of times for all the reasons we know. But it was the best of times, too, because you saw the best of people,” says Dr. Betancourt, who formerly served as the senior vice president for equity and community health at Massachusetts General Hospital, and as founding director of the Disparities Solutions Center. Besides examples such as proning (where the patient is placed face down, lying on their stomach to increase oxygen flow) becoming more common, Dr. Betancourt also detailed ways that leadership flourished through prioritization and emergency preparedness. He detailed the pivot Mass General made to ensure each shift employed Spanish speakers (read more here) and the difference such care made.
At Elmhurst Hospital, Arteaga-Landaverde recalled the fast thinking during crises, such as discharging families within hours of childbirth, offering follow-up care at home. “The innovation that happened to ensure the safety of the mom, the baby, the staff, the procedures that we did to make sure that we continue having healthy babies during the pandemic was huge, making sure the next generation of life was being saved,” she said.
There are actually three pandemics.
Dr. Guangdong Liu, a physician at Elmhurst, stood up to add a significant point to the discussion. “There’s actually three pandemics,” he said. “The first group is Covid, the next group are substance abusers and the third group are psych patients.” These three pandemics, he says, are colliding and resulting in overdoses, homelessness and despair.
The room nodded knowingly at Liu’s characterization, familiar with the substance abuse and mental health crises he speaks of but perhaps not linking them in quite this way. (My colleague Felipe de la Hoz has written about this, too.)
A brilliant breakdown of what DEI really means.
Use words more precisely, Dr. Betancourt said. In one of the smartest retorts to the anti-diversity efforts I’ve seen yet, he said: “Their messaging is very simple. It’s a straight line. Diversity is incompetence. Equity is advantaging people of color at the expense of white people, and inclusion is political correctness. They’ve been able to make that connection very clearly. It is on us to be very clear and precise about what we mean, and not be fighting the words the way that they define them or be on our backfoot.”
What does that look like? Dr. Betancourt broke it down further:
Diversity: “In a healthcare setting, we need people who represent the community, who can communicate, who can increase quality, improve experience, increase access.
Equity: “We need equity. We want to make sure that no matter who enters, they get the best we have to offer. That’s equity.”
Inclusion: “We want a workforce that feels valued and respected with pride. That clarity and precision is really, really important now.”
So simple, yet brilliant.
Misinformation is rampant. Let’s fight it together as trusted messengers.
In recent weeks, an erroneous social media post warned that Elmhurst Hospital was checking documentation and reporting people to immigration enforcement. “If you know Elmhurst, if you know me or anyone from our team, you know that would be impossible,” said Arteaga-Landaverde. “So if you see that, say, ‘hey, this is not true,’ and we hope the false information will die down.”
Indeed, the rumor was debunked.
We need to keep convening.
There was a real catharsis in convening. Many attendees remarked how safe they felt gathering at Elmhurst Hospital, and it does force us to choose venues with greater care right now. We invite you to join us to continue the remembrance and reflection on April 2 at 6:30 p.m., for the book launch of “When the City Stopped: Stories from New York’s Essential Workers” at CUNY’s Elebash Recital Hall at the Graduate Center. I will be in conversation with author and Manhattan historian Robert Snyder. Sign up here.
And because so much of our work also centers art and artists, we want to alert you to a public storytelling installation opening next week. “Reflections: Processing the Pandemic” is a series of video testimonials and self-portraits at the City Lore Gallery at 56 E. 1st St. from March 29 to April 27.
Visitors to the exhibit are encouraged to create their own self-portrait using the Self Portrait Project’s two-way mirror installation and reflect upon their own pandemic experience with SKY School’s thoughtful curriculum guide, contributing to an evolving dialogue about the ongoing effects of the pandemic. In the words of director and lead artist Trina DasGupta Pillay:
“While much was documented during the peak of the pandemic, little space has been given to process its emotional impacts afterwards.”
Watch the full conversation below.
