13 Fall/Winter 2021-22 unprecedented strain on hospital staffs, Gov. Kate Brown ultimately made more than 1,500 of the state’s roughly 8,000 Guard members a frequent sight in and around some 50 Oregon hospitals with an urgent need for extra hands. “In my 20 years-plus in health care, never in my life did I imagine that I would be soliciting the National Guard’s help,” said Elva Sipin, vice president of operations at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at Riverbend, in Springfield, the main destination for COVID patients in Lane County. “I’m just extremely grateful that they were able to help with our operational needs, at such a critical time, to help make sure that we were there for our community.” In the spring, Guard members could already be seen on the frontlines of the fight against COVID, mainly helping to staff Oregon’s mass vaccination sites— in spaces like fairgrounds, community centers, parking lots and gyms—to get the newly-approved immunization shots into thousands of waiting arms. That mission, known as Assurance, was largely winding down by the Fourth of July. Then came the summer’s surge in COVID infections from the highly contagious Delta variant—and the beginnings of the mobilization that put soldiers and airmen to work inside hospitals, a mission the Guard dubbed Reassurance. At a 347-bed facility like PeaceHealth Riverbend, COVID hospitalizations in July had dwindled to as few as about 20 per day, Sipin said. continues “I’m just extremely grateful that they were able to help with our operational needs, at such a critical time, to help make sure that we were there for our community.” Elva Sipin, VP of Operations, PeaceHealth Sacred Heart at Riverbend
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