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St. John’s Regional Medical Center celebrates Doctors’ Day

OXNARD, Calif. -- March 30 is National Doctors’ Day and St. John’s Regional Medical Center is celebrating after overcoming such a traumatic year.

“Doctors' Day in 2021 means a lot to just about every physician this year because of the experience we all had,” said Rob Streeter, Chief Medical Officer at St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard.

The health care industry has extra reason to celebrate national doctors' day this year. Staff in Ventura County and across the country have been working nonstop during the pandemic.

“I was just so amazed how everyone came together,” said Lynn Jeffers, Chief Medical Officer at St. John’s. "I was amazed how physicians stepped up and took leadership, and took care of their patients and became innovative in the things that we had to do. And at the same time didn’t forget our compassion.”

“Many of them had to sacrifice personally,” said Streeter. “Staying in trailers away from their families, and not seeing their children except for on the phone or their spouses so this year in particular doctors day really mean a lot to all of us.”

At one point around the holidays, St. John’s Regional Medical Center had zero available beds. Several months later-- there's light at the end of the tunnel.

“In terms of the number of COVID patients we are treating it has definitely declined,” said Streeter. “We are happy to see that. We are concerned of course that because of recent rises of cases elsewhere in the country that we might see a fourth wave, but right now we are experiencing about as few patients as we did in the early parts of the pandemic.”

“Really in many ways it brought a lot of us closer than we would've been without it,” said Jeffers.

Because of the pandemic, this year's doctor's day is a bit different.

“We do have some goodies out for them and we have something we call stars, where the staff members are writing nice letters of celebration and gratitude and those will be posted around the doctors lounges,” said Jeffers. “Because everyone needs to know how much we appreciate each other It is something we don’t do often enough and this is one great day to show them.”

“For patients I would encourage you to reach out to your doctors and let them know what they mean to you,” said Streeter.

For more information about St. John's Regional Medical Center, click here.

Article Topic Follows: Coronavirus

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Senerey de los Santos

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