Bravery in the trenches

Dr. Melissa Lee

Director of Adult Primary Care

My Role: My team was tasked with opening up a COVID-19 assessment and testing center – that's before we began to target testing for those more severely ill. We saw about 30 patients on the first day, and now, we are seeing close to 200 per day.

Impact Of Covid-19: Many of us believe that to be a good leader, you need to be on the front line, understand the work, do the work yourself and be in the trenches so that you can figure out workflows and find out what works best for your colleagues.

You never want to lead your team into a dangerous situation, but that's what this is.

We try to be as safe as possible, but even if we do everything right, we don't know what's going to happen. That's one of the hardest parts for us. This is the place where people who really care come to work, and that is apparent among the brave group of individuals I am working with. It makes me realize that I chose the right place to work.

Finding Joy: We've been calling employees at home that have called out sick. When you call them and they tell you that they're getting better, that's the most amazing thing to hear.