Shortly after the onset of the pandemic, Dr. Karim Godamunné, Chief Medical Officer at Wellstar North Fulton Hospital, began reviewing the hospital’s data and discovered a disproportionate number of North Fulton’s Hispanic residents were falling ill from the virus. Dr. Godamunné enlisted the help of his colleague Felix Soto-Izaguirre, Chief Financial Officer at Wellstar North Fulton Hospital, and together they began reaching out to patients one-on-one to attempt to identify the cause. The Wellstar team discovered that many Spanish-speaking patients knew very little about COVID-19 due to a lack of materials and resources being available in Spanish.
Wellstar quickly got to work on a bilingual COVID-19 awareness and prevention campaign. The hospital distributed over 1,200 flyers, passed out more than 500 safety kits and launched a “grass roots” neighborhood outreach effort. The hospital also worked with local community partners to help spread the word, including Fulton County Department of Health, the Latino Community Fund, Georgia Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Georgia Power, and several business leaders and local nonprofits. This collaborative community effort reached more than 3,500 families and helped to reduce COVID cases at the hospital by over 50% amongst the Hispanic community.
“Our Roswell business and community leaders partnered to make a profound impact on an underserved part of our population. We are proud to be a part of ‘Team Roswell’ and honored to play a role in this important campaign.”
– Jon-Paul Croom, President, Wellstar North Fulton Hospital
“Seeing so many community leaders come together to make a difference and help protect and save lives during these very challenging times has
been truly amazing.”
– Dr. Karim Godamunné, Chief Medical Officer, Wellstar North Fulton Hospital
This story was originally featured in our 2020 Annual Report.