A disaster can bring out the best in a team, a community, and partners. Teams become closer, and new bonds are formed. This past water crisis in the City of Watertown was a considerable challenge for Samaritan, yet in every crisis, we learn, grow, and remain grateful for those who helped. The Samaritan Caregivers would like to thank all the community groups that helped us, checked in on us, and ensured we could care for patients and residents. The list is long, and we are sure a few unsung heroes may have been missed, but truly, we are grateful to all.
- Carthage Area Hospital – your team and facilities helped our Central Sterilization and Lab teams keep functioning. We are so grateful for your help and for letting us use your equipment. Our team and patients are so thankful.
- Local and regional hospitals – thank you for accommodating the patients who would have been treated at Samaritan. We appreciate you and your expertise.
- Our local fire departments – we worked closely with City of Watertown Fire Department personnel and Jefferson County Emergency Management teams to ensure our facilities had water for our mechanical systems. Volunteer fire departments throughout the county placed portable tanks at each primary location and ensured we had what we needed.
- Local EMS (first responders, emergency medical, and ambulance services) – this was a historic event, and being unable to serve patients left a crippling impact on local services not being able to transport patients to Samaritan Medical Center. Thank you for your patience and the many extra miles you were forced to travel to care for those in your care.
- John Allen Sanitation – your team worked quickly to get us 20 portable bathrooms for our staff at a very low cost. We are grateful for your swift action and response.
- Kinney Drugs – thank you for your over 800 lbs. of bagged ice donation to our patients, residents, and staff. After buying all we could from our supplier, you gave us what we needed.
- Detail This – thank you for our needed water tanker and water delivery.
- Coca-Cola– thank you for the large delivery bottled water delivery to ensure we had drinking water.
- Lab Corp – as one of our reference labs, it became necessary to send specimens to your team to help decrease the volume on our lab staff; thank you for being a strong partner.
- Yellow Cab – we needed reliable and continuous transportation for some of our operations, and you became that partner; thank you.
- Century Laundry – thank you for laundering our over 14,000 lbs. of laundry quickly and timely, we appreciate your help.
- Fort Drum – the leadership and troops rallied to help our entire city and provided essential support to Samaritan during this time. This partnership is special and beneficial to all.
- Local and State officials – Our team of leaders spent much time and conversation with city of Watertown officials, local emergency management teams, and other important contacts. Our need to communicate was imperative, and each team stepped up and provided information and updates. We also want to acknowledge the resources and guidance the State of New York provided. Seeing their swift action and resource allocation was uplifting.
- State Department of Health – thank you for the assistance and guidance before, during, and after the event.
- Our inpatients and residents – thank you for understanding our challenges during the water crisis and for working so well with our caregivers.
And the most enormous thanks go to our compassionate and amazing team of caregivers at Samaritan. You made the best of a terrible circumstance. You rallied and communicated, and together, we went above and beyond to ensure patients and residents were safely cared for when a basic staple of life was unavailable. We are grateful to each of you and enormously proud that you are a part of the Samaritan family.
