Theresa Larivee
Pennsylvania Hospital saw significant innovative progress in 2019. We constructed our state-of-the-art Spine Center and opened the health system’s first downtown Cardiac Rehab. We relocated our Crisis Response Center, creating a patient-centered layout and better connecting it our main campus. We started offering new treatments like Ocrevus for patients with multiple sclerosis, piloted a post-operative telemedicine program, and same-day joint replacements have become the norm at PAH, not the exception.
Over the last year, PAH continued cultivating relationships with the community through events like our 3rd annual Diversity Day, which celebrated the differences that enrich our team and our neighbors, and our 5th biannual Intensive Care Nursery Reunion, which brought care team members back together with former patients and their families. Our compassionate employees were also generous with their own time, financial support, and donations not only during the recently passed holiday season, but all year round.
PAH raised more than $40,000 for the American Heart Association’s 2019 Philadelphia Heart Walk, and many departments set up volunteer days with local organizations like MANNA. Staff who earned Penn Medicine CAREs grants to fund their outreach partnered with ministries, shelters, schools, and clinics across the region. Some organized free blood pressure screenings and led healthy living and eating classes, while others handed out head lice treatment kits and taught the Heimlich maneuver to students. The common goal for every project: forge meaningful, lasting connections with those who live and work around us.
Now, a new year has begun. With it has come new opportunities to continue improving the health of our patients and the well-being of individuals across the city and region. Just as an innovative spirit has been at the heart of our hospital since the beginning, a sense of civic duty has always informed our work. I’m proud to lead a workforce so invested in doing good and making change on and off the clock, and I look forward to working with all of you to build a healthier Pennsy community in 2020.