In the midst of all the ebbs and flows of COVID-19, Medical Center Hospital employees have received support from a variety of sectors of the community.
MCH Associate Chief Experience Officer Courtney Look said it has been overwhelming.
“… I think it’s been a really important message for all of our healthcare team members to know that the community is behind them. They support them. They’re thinking about them,” Look said.
One of the more unique gifts came from the MCH Auxiliary which donated what they call a Zen Room, which used to be a conference room.
“It’s a room with massage chairs and devotional books and adult coloring books. It has oil diffusers and a Kuerig coffee maker.
“We keep it stocked with snacks and some really calming decorations …,” Look said.
When times are stressful, or a team member just needs to step away for a second, they use the room, she said.
People usually take about 15 minutes out to refocus, regroup and then get back to their areas or units, Look added.
“We’ve seen a huge response. When we first started, people were … going in slowly and curiously, but I think as the word has spread …,” more people started to take advantage, Look said.
She added that her patient experience team re-stocks drinks and snacks pretty regularly throughout the week.
“We’re seeing a lot of traffic through there,” Look said.
She noted that they have also received a lot of handwritten cards from the community.
“Those are so impactful,” Look said. “We love leaving them in our physician lounge. Our nurses on the unit love to read them.” Retired nurses have also decorated keychains and people have contributed a huge amount of snacks, sodas, water, hand sanitizer, lotions and Chap Sticks.
“We even have had some individuals from the Midland-Odessa Symphony that will come in at shift change and they will play some music — whether it’s by viola, or violin, or cello. They’ll play at shift change as the team is coming in,” Look said.
“We’ve had many church groups that have donated snacks, or they’ll cheer in our team at shift change,” Look said.
Ethan Wills, executive director of the Midland-Odessa Symphony & Chorale, said musicians — individually and in groups — were inspired to say thank you through their music by an article in the Odessa American saying how difficult it was to stay positive.
When COVID numbers were high, Wills said musicians would play on Fridays for morning and evening shift changes and they would travel between Odessa and Midland.
It was their way of saying thank you — quickly, Wills said.
“It was cool. I played myself. I play trombone. Normally that’s not something the amateur listener is used to hearing,” Wills said.
At the time, windows were open in the rooms of COVID patients, but Wills said you could see other windows on other floors opening to hear the music.
“It was a really fulfilling moment,” Wills said.
He added that it also was gratifying to see employees taking a longer route coming to or leaving work.
Along with the music, many people want to chalk the sidewalks just to say they are thinking about MCH employees and expressing well wishes, Look said.
Mission Fitness also has partnered with the hospital to offer gym passes.
“We’ve seen a really wide range of support that has just been so meaningful. There’s so much going on in the media. There’s so much going on about COVID and to know that you have the West Texas community behind you has been really uplifting for the spirits of our team,” Look said.
