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Take part in Hospital Week (May 10-16)

May 11, 2020 – News

Hospital Week – an annual week where hospitals across the country give their employees a well-earned weeklong thank you – officially kicked off yesterday. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the week takes on a whole new meaning. The staff at Bartlett Regional Hospital, from cleaning and laundry to frontline medical staff, have been working around the clock to make BRH safe and expand its capacity for care. Pharmacy staff Gina Heffern and Misty Wylie are two examples of this.

While there’s never a good time to have cancer, having it during a global pandemic is especially difficult and stressful. BRH has excellent pharmacy staff, including Gina and Misty, who make chemotherapy and other infusion drugs on site.

“Because these chemotherapy agents are really hazardous, they have to be handled in a really particular way and we mix them specifically for each patient. It requires a lot of special handling and the environment needs to be particular to keep both the patient safe, to keep the product sterile, and to keep the pharmacist safe while they’re handling hazardous drugs. We have to be careful that we’re taking all the precautions because cancer patients are at a higher risk of infections, any infection, at any time. So at this heightened environment with COVID you have to be extra cautious,” Misty said. Misty Wylie is the pharmacy purchasing technician at BRH. She’s been at Bartlett for 6 years. In addition to purchasing drugs and keeping track of inventory, she’s also been compounding the chemotherapy drugs for patients.

Gina Heffern has been the infusion pharmacist at Bartlett Regional hospital for a little over two years:  “I grew up here. I was born in this hospital, so this has literally been a part of my life since I came to be. It’s really special for me to feel like I’m serving my community and providing care to the community. I feel very invested because these are my people in Juneau.”

Thank you Misty and Gina, and the rest of the staff at BRH, for all you do to take care of the community.

The community is invited to take part in Hospital Week 2020:

  • Leave a positive message of encouragement on BRH website’s Thank You page
  • Submit a thank you video selfie for a Bartlett Heroes video. Say, “Thank you Bartlett Heroes!” to your cell phone camera on video setting. Remember to hold phone vertically. Then, text it to videographer Sam Galorport at 907-957-7828.