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While much of the nation prepares this week for the July 4 summer holiday, hospitals and their dedicated employees will continue their 24/7 work to care for any and all who need them, at any moment.
In California, the Independence Day weekend isn’t just a beginning-of-summer holiday — it also marks a few days of heightened risk at the start of a perilous fire season. One thing Californians have learned over the past several years of wildfires: hospitals and the people who work in them are ready, willing, and able to do what’s needed when disaster strikes.
Yes, there are the hospital emergency operations plans; the standards, regulations, and statutes; the staff training and education; and everything else hospitals do in case of an emergency. But there are also the people who dedicate themselves to their communities and their neighbors in need, no matter the strained circumstances or personal difficulty.
And, of course, ever present is the hospital mission that carries through even the most difficult days: to help and heal and care.
Whether it’s wildfires in the summer season or some other natural disaster, an infectious disease outbreak, a cyber threat, or countless unexpected events that can harm a community, hospitals stand at the ready — even on holiday weekends when so many others take time to exhale.
To all those who choose to work at a hospital: Thank you for your courage and professionalism, and for your sense of selflessness that, on this Independence Day week, evokes the American spirit.
– Carmela
