AdventHealth CEO Terry Shaw Appeared on CBS’ Face the Nation

AdventHealth CEO Terry Shaw was a guest Sunday on CBS’ Face the Nation, one of the longest-running news programs on air, to talk about the organization’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Shaw shared how AdventHealth is managing supplies and hospital bed capacities to continue to keep our communities safe. Click here to see the full interview.

During the six-minute interview, Shaw fielded questions from host Margaret Brennan on varying topics such as the rise in cases in Florida, hospital capacity, personal protective equipment (PPE) and staffing shortages.

“I'm thankful that we've had several months to learn how to treat the disease,” Shaw told Brennan. “We're much better prepared in July than we were in March. We have adequate personal protective equipment. We have a stockpile of ventilators, and we have an amazing clinical team that have taken best practices from around the globe and put them into our treatment protocols.”

Shaw laid out how AdventHealth is able to strategically leverage its national footprint to move clinicians for needed provide support. He also talked about AdventHealth’s new team member redeployment program, an essential tool used by the organization to ensure facilities are staffed to care for patients.

With the recent spikes in infections, Shaw told Brennan that AdventHealth was adequately prepared for an influx of patients.

“In March and April, we spent an enormous amount of money on PPE and we continue to have stockpiled PPE that we so desperately need right now,” Shaw said. “Our ICU capacities [in Florida] are running at about 85 to 90 percent, but we have the ability to turn some of our progressive care units into ICU units if we need to do so.”

As the country battles the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous states, including Arizona, Florida and Texas, are experiencing record numbers of COVID-19 cases. Shaw told Brennan he believed the peak will occur later in July, but that people will need to continue to care for each other by wearing a mask and maintaining social distancing.

“Based upon the testing, my guess is that the peak is some time in front of us in July,” Shaw said. “And that would assume that people do what they need to do from both a distancing perspective and a masking perspective. We can all do a better job by making sure we’re caring for each other by just wearing a simple mask and staying six feet from a distance perspective from the next person.”

“Our corporate leadership has done a phenomenal job to secure large numbers of personal protective equipment, focused on continuing to provide exceptional care to our communities,” said Mike Murrill, president and CEO of AdventHealth Gordon. “On a local level, I am extremely proud of our front-line teams who continue to work tirelessly to deliver on our mission of Extending the Healing Ministry of Christ.”