Shannon Douglas is the Eastern Regional Director of Home Health for BayCare HomeCare (BCHC). From April 2020 through March 2022, Shannon led people and projects through the pandemic-laden months. In early planning for how to acquire or make masks and face shields, he provided support and encouragement to his leaders and clinicians. During times when PPE was scarce, he ensured that educators taught the donning and doffing of PPE in patient driveways, garages, and front porches. He built relationships with hospitalists and medical directors throughout BayCare to develop protocols for caring for COVID patients in the community.

When team members were scared, and as the first summer surge built after Father’s Day 2020, Shannon led the HomeCare team to develop the COVID Emergency Department Mitigation Protocol along with the COVID Oxygen Protocol for COVID-19 patients being cared for by Home Health. This protocol saved the lives of over 60 patients and prevented their re-hospitalization while under our care. Shannon and his Western Regional Director partner taught staff, worked with HomeCare intake and hospital discharge Care Management, and got the teams comfortable with rapid change. Together they rapidly developed the “Hotel Corona” a county-funded hotel for stable acute-care COVID patients who could spend the last 2-3 days of their hospital stay in a hotel with home health staff caring for them. The 5-week rapid deployment of this project was thought to be an overwhelming task, but it was handled with calm direction, dedication, and a devilish sense of humor. Shannon led his 5 home health branch leaders and clinical teams through the loss of patients, and the tragic loss of a team member to COVID. All the while, he was a wonderful colleague to his peers and physician leaders.