ICU Medical Director Named Congressional Woman Of The Year

Press release from Providence:

June 28, 2021

At the height of the winter surge of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was Terese Hammond, M.D., medical director of the Intensive Care Unit/Critical Care Unit at Providence Saint John’s Health Center, who doctors, nurses, patients and families turned to for support and guidance. The medical expert knew how to remain calm under pressure and what to do to save patients’ lives.

This week, in honor of her service to the community, Dr. Hammond was recognized by U.S. Rep. Judy Chu (D-California) as a recipient of the Women of the Year Award. This year’s awards honored “hometown heroes” who live, work or volunteer in the 27th Congressional District and who demonstrated great courage and leadership during the pandemic.

Dr. Hammond was one of 12 women selected to receive the award. She was honored May 22 during a virtual ceremony.

“Amid all the struggle of this past year, each one of our honorees has risen to the occasion and made incredible impacts in the San Gabriel Valley. At a time when we needed heroes most, they stepped up and gave all of us hope,” Chu said.

During the height of the pandemic, when other hospitals were turning patients away, Dr. Hammond and her team expanded Saint John’s Health Center’s ICU to accept patients transferred from other hospitals and to treat those who were critically ill.

The decision gave several patients from across Southern California the opportunity to receive Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) treatment, which uses a machine to pump and oxygenate a patient’s blood outside of their body to give the heart and lungs time to rest.

“This has allowed many young people, who otherwise would have died, a second chance at life,” Dr. Hammond said.

In addition to this work, Dr. Hammond and her team partnered with the Saint John’s Cancer Institute to offer COVID-19 research trials to patients and to find new treatments for the disease. In all, the group enrolled 183 patients in various trials.

Beyond the clinical lessons from the pandemic, the experience reaffirmed Dr. Hammond’s mission to address existing socioeconomic, racial and clinical disparities in health care, especially in the community setting.

“I have become increasingly cognizant of the growing disparities in health care and COVID-19 laid these disparities bare,” she said. “I am proud to be a strong voice and advocate for community-based health care and believe at my core that community hospitals and their patients not only deserve but should demand the same access to high quality care that those in larger academic settings receive.”

The mission is one that Providence Saint John’s Health Center continues to pursue through its community investments, services and programs.

In 2020, Providence Southern California provided $485 million in community support through investments in organizational partnerships, local food pantries, community health insurance, COVID-19 education and housing for those experiencing homelessness, among other measures.

Across the seven-state Providence system, the organization contributed $1.7 billion to similar programs and services.

This press release was produced by Providence. The views expressed here are the author's own.