At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, doctors at Northern Light Mercy Hospital and throughout its medical practices were ready with not just the right equipment but the right temperaments.

Dr. Su-Anne Hammond is Mercy’s medical director of primary care. When there were infection surges, some of her team’s duties would shift on a week-to-week basis as they moved to front line care.

“The pandemic has been a bit of a rollercoaster for many of us,” Hammond said. When they were not in a hospital or medical clinic seeing their patients, they were shifting to telemedicine or spending time educating patients that it was safe to come in for a check-up.

Mercy also set up an early drive-through testing site at its Fore River campus, then partnered with the city and local non-profits to meet people where they were at for testing, visiting homeless shelters, group homes, schools, substance use programs, and more.

“It was not what we typically do, but I was thinking to myself during the hard days that, ‘I still love my job.’ I truly love helping people learn about their health and how to take care of themselves,” Hammond reflected.

Many doctors have that tendency to center on the needs of others. Dr. John Southall is the senior physician executive at Mercy Hospital. During an interview for this article, he asked if there would be space for a public health message.

“In the beginning, when everything was so crazy and people were very stressed, I felt the most comfortable in the ER,” he said. “Everyone was doing what they were trained to do.”

It was when he and his co-workers returned home, going through intensive disinfecting routines, they felt the stress of possibly infecting their families.

At Mercy Hospital, there are silver linings to find even in the wake of such a challenging year for healthcare. They’ve learned about the innate ability of their doctors and care teams to change quickly in response to a crisis and settle into new routines.

Knowing they can be so innovative is a source of hope for Hammond and Southall. They were excited to share that the vaccine clinic Mercy established at the Portland Expo is consistently increasing the number of vaccinations it is administering each week and that in-person office visits are becoming more routine again.

“We learned so much from telehealth this year,” said Southall, “but the human connection is the best part.”