Going Above The Call Of Duty | #SCWeek2020

Angela Banks, Implementation Manager, The Resource Group works at Via Christi in Wichita, Kansas. She has been a proud associate since 2016 and relishes all elements of her work, especially the relationships she gets to develop with caregivers across the system. These relationships are crucial during decision making processes, addressing any conflict-resolution that may arise, and clinically integrate supply chain to best support care. This relationship development has always been important and was a key piece in a successful COVID response.

Although COVID-19 did not impact the health of communities until March, backorders and recalls resulting from COVID overseas were already straining the supply chain as early as February. For Angela and the Wichita team, there was the added complexity of unfilled roles, a gap in human resources, crucial to this response. Luckily for the team, Angela’s previous relationship management development assisted in filling this need. Through long days and nights Angela made sure that effective and efficient communications occurred to all stakeholders such as the local leadership and infection prevention teams.

Although seemingly small, Angela’s relationship development was key to a successful response as the team did not have to lose precious time in building trust with caregivers and leadership who already had higher priority topics to deal with. Instead the trust was already established and Angela and team were able to place their efforts into a successful COVID-19 mitigation.

As Angela reflected on March and April, she said, “Having those pre built relationships already established allowed us to see first hand what our caregivers, local infection prevention, and local leadership were dealing with. We were able to address needs right away, share in the exhaustion of our work while simultaneously lifting each other up and strengthening our shared impact. It gives me a lot of pride to support Via Christi through my role with The Resource Group and work together to do what we are all here to do: support our patients and our communities.”

Angela also recognized that hard work is never accomplished alone; “As I said, relationships are extremely important. The most important relationships I have are the ones with my Implementation team. A huge shout out to the Critical Product Managers: Pat Edwards, Emily Droselmeyer, and Tiffany Crisman, who are truly the bridge between the clinical staff and supply chain. They create and maintain strong relationships, a crucial element in our COVID-19 response and in ensuring we remain true to our purpose of providing high levels of hospitality and service even during times of uncertainty.”