Healthcare Heroes
About the Mass General Emergency Response Fund
The Emergency Response Fund was established following the Boston Marathon bombing by Peter L. Slavin, MD, president of Massachusetts General Hospital. During crises such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, it allows critical flexibility to quickly deploy funds to meet urgent needs across the hospital. Some examples of how these funds can be utilized for this particular initiative include:
- Early-on development of in-house testing for COVID-19
- Purchasing PPE- Personalized Protective Equipment (Specialized clothing and equipment worn by employees to protect them against health and safety hazards. For example N95 mask.)
- Purchasing ventilators
- Support for their workforce such as subsidizing meals, transportation and childcare costs; supplying housing close to the hospital; and providing amenities that help alleviate some of the stress that care providers are experiencing
- Support for vaccine development and clinical trials for testing and therapeutics
- Expansion of their telemedicine platforms to care for patients whose appointments have been rescheduled or who cannot come in for a visit
- Development of a patient COVID-19 hotline with enough interpreters to answer questions from patients for whom English is a second language
Mass General’s emergency preparedness measures are comprehensive. Fail-safe and rigorously-tested procedures are in place to deal with cases as they arise. The combination of deep subject matter expertise and strong management systems ensures that patients and the community are receiving the best possible care from their clinicians during this volatile public health situation.
