Special to the
Opelika Observer
The COVID-19 pandemic has touched virtually every community in the United States. After seeking nominations from 22,000 Emergency Room physicians through a closed Facebook group, Louis M. Profeta, M.D., an emergency physician in Indianapolis, published an article for LinkedIn Pulse Magazine titled “The Top Five Hospital Administrators During the Covid-19 Pandemic” as determined by the Emergency Physicians who staff their ERs. One of those five was EAMC President and CEO, Laura Grill.
In his article, Dr. Profeta opened by talking about how this Facebook group had been called on by the COVID-19 task force because emergency physicians were first among frontline workers in seeing COVID patients present to hospitals. He followed that by saying the group also exchanged open responses about the performance of their administrators. That gave him the idea to solicit nominations from the group on top performances.
Dr. Profeta went on to highlight the five administrators that he selected as his top five—the other four were from Albany, NY, Greenfield, IN, Park City, UT and Springfield, MO. Each profile included comments from the ER physicians who nominated the administrators. For EAMC’s Grill, that meant words of praise from Alan Moore, M.D. (ER medical director) and Austin Reece, M.D.
When learning of Dr. Profeta’s article last Thursday, Grill, who was unaware of the nominations, quickly deflected the praise, and stressed the work of the entire EAMC family.
“As I told our employees in an email one night, we have worked through disasters in the past, such as last year’s tornadoes, where a sizable number of employees were impacted. But we’ve never worked through a situation where literally every employee had to pitch in through one way or another. The response throughout the organization has been one of total cooperation and buy-in,” says Grill.
“I appreciate the very kind words of Dr. Moore and Dr. Reece—and it’s nice of Dr. Profeta to recognize the work of administrators and non-clinical personnel despite any of us being on the true front lines of this pandemic,” Grill notes. “I could not be more proud of our physicians and employees working together, supporting each other, and stepping into unfamiliar roles during this time. It’s important to also include the support of the community as a significant reason for us sustaining. They provided countless meals, donated medical supplies and blessed us with their prayers and thoughtful gestures.”
Comments from Dr. Moore and Dr. Reece as well as the complete article by Dr. Profeta can be found at linkedin.com/pulse/top-five-hospital-administrators-during-covid-19-who-staff-louis-m-/?published=t%20%5blinkedin.com%5d.
Dr. Louis M. Profeta is an emergency physician practicing in Indianapolis and a member of the Indianapolis Forensic Services Board. He is a national award-winning writer, public speaker and one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices and the author of the critically acclaimed book, The Patient in Room Nine Says He’s God.