Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, all of you as health care professionals have faced challenges beyond any we could have imagined. Our health system and our community have asked a great deal of you — perhaps more than ever before.
Our Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health team has responded each time by stepping up. You have worked long hours, taken on greater responsibility and sacrificed time with your families, recognizing the health risks associated with your chosen profession. You have acted with courage, dedication and compassion, making you true heroes to our patients and everyone in our community.
Throughout all of this, we as leaders have done our best to support and protect you. We have made decisions based on the best information available to us, which includes everything from requiring masks and limiting visitors to significantly increasing our spending on personal protective equipment.
Even as we, like other health systems, incurred significant financial losses, we continued to prioritize our people and your safety. The reasons for our decisions were not always obvious or explained, but you trusted us and chose to step up, and we thank you for that.
With the COVID-19 vaccine requirement, we again asked you to step up. While you have made countless sacrifices during the pandemic, we understand that this is more personal. For a great many of you, getting vaccinated was a clear choice to protect our patients, your loved ones and yourself. However, we recognize that for others, the decision was more difficult.
As Lancaster County’s largest employer and most trusted health care provider, Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health has always played a leadership role in our community. That role only increased during the pandemic. With the vaccine requirement, we asked each one of you to trust us again and join us in acting as leaders to protect the health and safety of everyone in our community.
In the end, there is nothing more important to us than your health and safety. You — and your heroic actions, both large and small — have made Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health the successful organization it is today. I deeply appreciate your support and partnership as we continue to step up together and act in the best interests of our patients, our community and each other.