Photo: The drive-thru COVID test site. Courtesy photo.
by Olga Peters, Vermont Business Magazine In April 2020, Grace Cottage in Townshend was “in the worst place pandemic wise,” said President and CEO Doug DiVello.
What a difference a year has made for the small community hospital.
“We’re in the black,” DiVello said.
As of April, the hospital has brought in slightly more revenue than it budgeted for, DiVello said.
A combination of federal relief funding, an increase in private donations, and dedicated staff helped the hospital through the deepest part of the pandemic.
“The community held us in their hearts and really poured out their support,” Andrea Seaton said.
According to Seaton, director of development, marketing and community relations, donations from the community have always been crucial for the small facility.
Last year, however, donors really “dug deep.” During the 2020 calendar year, Grace Cottage received support from 600 more donors than the previous year, she said.
The community’s support went beyond money, Seaton continued. Volunteers sewed cloth masks, gowns, and banners for the hospital’s patients and visitors.
Founded in 1949, the 19-bed hospital is the smallest in Vermont, according to Seaton.
In an average year, Grace Cottage’s rural health clinic serves between 7,000 and 8,000 patients from 25 towns.
Most of these towns are in Windham County, but patients also come from Windsor and Bennington Counties.
The Townshend institution started to feel the pandemic’s impacts last March.
By April, the organization’s patient use of the rural health clinic, emergency room, and hospital dropped by 50 percent, DiVello said.
He attributes this plummet to the halting of elected procedures. While necessary for slowing the virus’ spread, it also meant Grace Cottage generated approximately half the money it normally budgeted for elected procedures.
Another necessity, the state’s stay home order, meant more patients delayed their regular health screenings such as an annual physical, DiVello added.
Health care providers based at Grace Cottage quickly pivoted to offering remote visits through teleconferencing, phone calls, or telemedicine, he said.
The downside of this technology, DiVello continued, was that it was “fastidious and slow.”
The clinic’s number of patients and revenue also dropped by half.
DiVello said Grace Cottage took advantage of the federal Paycheck Protection Program to get it through a tough month and a half.
“We were in a pretty deep hole,” he said.
Still, DiVello made the decision early last year against furloughing or laying off any of the organization’s 200 employees.
“The last thing I wanted to do was take a paycheck away from someone,” he said.
In DiVello’s opinion, preserving staffing levels also meant supporting the local economy and protecting Grace Cottage’s future.
At the community level, staff participates in the local economy, he said. They support it through their spending.
As a small, lean organization in the midst of a national nursing shortage, cutting staff also meant “cutting into the meat” of Grace Cottage.
The hospital faced the very real risk of losing staff permanently and threatened its ability to reopen at full capacity once the pandemic ended, he said.
In the end, DiVello feels the decision to protect jobs paid off.
Grace Cottage supported its employees, and in return, they support Grace Cottage, he said.
Eventually, the hospital turned a corner and saw an uptick in patients.
Grace Cottage also offers a drive-thru COVID testing site and vaccinations.
Photo: A woman at the vaccine clinic. Courtesy photo.
DiVello said since the pandemic began, the hospital has administered approximately 2,700 COVID-19 tests through its drive-thru site. Of the less than 80 patients that tested positive for COVID, the majority recovered at home, he added.
According to Seaton, since the state rolled out its vaccine regimen, Grace Cottage has vaccinated an average of 4,00 people a week and 4,000 to date.
Staff treats the vaccine clinics like a celebration.
Seaton said staff meet clients in the parking area waving pompoms and then escort them to the nurses administering the vaccines.
“The staff’s mood has been euphoric” around holding the vaccine clinics, she added.
Visits to the emergency room remain at 20 percent under pre-COVID levels. DiVello attributes this to people staying home and participating in fewer activities.
The hospital has treated approximately the same, or a few more, patients than last year now that elective procedures have begun again. Appointments for annual health screenings and physicals have picked up, he said. The rural health clinic’s volume is up 15 percent over 2020.
New health care providers have also joined Grace Cottage, DiVello said.
DiVello said COVID taught Grace Cottage much. Many of the lessons are here to stay.
Remote primary care has proved useful, especially for clients with barriers to travel, he said.
Many of the hospital’s COVID responses are “hardwired” into the building and will serve future patients.
DiVello pointed to the installation of new negative pressure rooms designed to contain viruses like COVID, but also influenza, as an example.
Seaton said Grace Cottage recently completed construction of a new emergency trauma room as well as redesigned the patient entrance to make screenings easier. The improvements expanded beyond COVID, she said. The hospital has also upgraded its CT scanner and added a new bone density machine.
COVID also taught Grace Cottage how important it is for employees to know they can, and should, stay home when feeling sick.
Encouraging people to stay home when ill will require a culture change, DiVello said.
To this end, Grace Cottage has created a new employee health program that includes encouraging people to recuperate at home.