People of the Year: Dr. Kevin Caserta, Chief Medical Officer and Site Administrator, Providence

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Editor's Note: The Chronicle's 2020 People of the Year special section was included with the Feb. 6 edition of The Chronicle. 

I am blessed to serve Providence and Lewis County. Working with others is an enormous source of joy for me, and even during the most challenging times of 2020, I was comforted by our incredible team. If you can work with others, you generally can figure everything else out. From Centralia to Olympia, and throughout our five-county service area, our community is fortunate to have Providence as its leading healthcare provider. I am truly amazed by our caregivers and their dedication to service even in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic. 2020 strengthened my understanding of the power of our Providence team and our partners, expanding my definition of healthcare heroes.

Everyone who works for Providence is considered a caregiver. Frontline clinicians such as physicians, nurses, and therapists are deservedly recognized for their excellent and compassionate care; however, they couldn’t do their jobs without the efforts of so many others. For instance, all clinicians require Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to protect themselves and patients from infections. The pandemic disrupted the international supply chain for masks, respirators, and other equipment, stressing our entire healthcare system. The fear of not being able to keep our caregivers safe caused me to lose more sleep than anything else last year. Fortunately, our supply chain team across Providence worked tirelessly, following every lead, searching the world for available supplies. Through their work and God’s grace we always had adequate PPE.



Our heroes in the lab understood the importance of quickly and accurately identifying patients with COVID-19. Through their skill and the generosity of our Providence Foundation donors, and the Lewis County Public Health Department, Providence Centralia Hospital was able to implement in-house COVID-19 testing, decreasing turnaround times from seven days to eventually 30 minutes in many cases.  

Despite frequent changes in practice recommendations, stressors with kids’ schooling or childcare, long hours, and their own risk of acquiring COVID-19, our caregivers never stopped serving. It was not uncommon for me to get emails from our infection prevention team and members of our incident command at 2 a.m., sharing ideas and always planning. Other healthcare heroes include our environmental services team, respiratory therapists, spiritual care, our communication team, and so many others. I wish I could list them all.  

Like Providence and our partners, Lewis County has a history of coming together during times of tragedy such as the 2007 flood. Unfortunately, in some instances we have allowed pandemic politics to cause division rather than cooperation. I am saddened by this divide and at times even have become angry with those who refused to do simple things like masking and social distancing to prevent the spread of the virus. I recently lost a dear friend to COVID-19, a gentle man who dedicated his life to service in honor of his Savior. In his honor, I chose no longer to be angry, and chose instead to serve and love even those who disagree with me. I pray you join me.