treatment. And today we are
honoring the heroes without
capes. Care. Professional.
>> All this month. We here at
KPRC
2 are celebrating. They heroes.
And today we are saluting our
frontline workers who cared
mothers, fathers sons
daughters. Countless others
this week is national nurses
week.
Good afternoon. Thank you for
joining us on the road.
>> And I’m Lisa Hernandez
thanks to your day with us here
live here at John P mcgovern,
Texas Medical Center Commons.
That’s right.
>> Leading our coverage is KPRC
two’s, Haley Hernandez.
Houston’s only.
>> And Haley. You are with the
president and CEO of the Texas
Medical Center
this morning. Yeah, guys.
So he obviously has an
extraordinary leadership role.
Bill mckeon is joining me now
live. But during the covid
pandemic, he and I were
just chatting.
>> There’s so many people
trusted their lives based on
the information that came out
of here at the Texas medical
Center and you have been
keeping a close eye on
the numbers through your
leadership. We have known
exactly how much of the virus
within our community. And just
tell me, you know, let’s talk a
little bit about that. What
were some of the challenges
that you guys face.
>> Throughout the whole
pandemic you’re all welcome.
Welcome to the Texas Medical
Center and
the first meeting we ever
happens in the Texas Medical
Center for girls and we brought
all of the leaders here at the
Texas Medical Center together
and that was in February.
That was 13 months ago when
the virus was still in Wuhan
China And we really came
together at that time and made
a decision that instead of
operating a separate entity.
We’re going to bring all of
our data together in real time.
So we formed a war room here.
every day we pull that data
several times a day from all
the medical center. So we knew
how many patients we’re
treating, how many people we’ve
tested and now how many people
we vaccinated.
>> And it was really all the
difference because we have
real-time data where around
the world sometimes in other
parts of the state there
waiting 4 to 5 months and weeks
to understand really where the
virus and to the danger with
that is that you wouldn’t know
if there was a surge happening
around you. And as you see fall
that the war room because we
were at war with this virus.
We are at war with this virus,
right. Absolutely. And like all
wars you win on intelligence
and
supply chains.
>> So one of the things that we
also did is we brought our
supply chain purchase saying.
Personal protection equipment
and all of the ventilators,
all the tools that we need.
You heard in other parts of the
country. Other family in other
parts of the world. They ran
short of those.
I never did here because we
really started to do that.
And purchase on ball and share
that data in real time.
It’s going to say, you know,
Houston did well when we did
look at that, we worried about
ventilators not being
available. We worried about our
staff or hospital staff getting
sick and.
>> Would you say that we didn’t
really see it happen right.
>> We certainly came close to
the limitation of how many beds
we have here. But one of the
beauties of the medical center.
It’s because we treat so many
patients.
Excess capacity that normal
hospitals wouldn’t have.
But because we have the leading
cancer Center and Children’s
Hospital and.
♪
And so but it really took us to
be very often mindful about
utilization. Those resources
and it was done collectively
across the city and now we’ve
had we have enough vaccines
for everyone in our community.
I know that you and I are able
to sit here across from each
other. Outdoors without a mask
because we’re both vaccinated.
So anyway, last word to the
public about getting vaccines
getting through this thing.
Sure that the vaccine I think
what a lot of people be
surprised to find is every day
we had made about a 100
patients.
>> Covid patients
indoor hospitals.
>> And what’s unique and now
they’re all under 50 years of
age. For the
most part 20 to 50 years of
age. And news for the people
that think for some reason they
don’t need to be vaccinated.
And it’s really sad to see
because we have the supplies
available you can get
vaccinated in a day 2 days.
Now, there’s no way. And so I
really hope people will really
rethink this because the sooner
in which they lean in to that
the center. We’re going to be
returning to a life or freedom.
Halfback since coming out for
children. You’re going to both
the Pfizer vaccine Moderna just
came out with data today.
Some pretty soon we’re going to
be vaccinating our children
this summer. So they can return
to school knowing will be free
of covid. Yeah. I think we
could see it happen as soon as
the fall. Mister McCann, thank
you so much for joining me.
And in your honor, we’re going
to be paying it forward to a
health care worker who has.
>> Inslee throughout this
pandemic. So we appreciate your
being here. And for all the
work you feel. Thank you for
the great reporting you’ve done
all Actual and that really
helped the public really
understands the decisions they
have to make.
And I’m Lisa. We’ll toss it
back
to you. All right. And to thank
you, Mister McCain for your
hard work KPRC 2 and
uptown Houston would like to