AAP Voices Blog

I would like to tell a story regarding one of my colleagues at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, N.Y.:

Dr. Pilar Gonzalez, Director of Ambulatory Pediatrics at Elmhurst Hospital, was dealing with two ill family members in Spain stricken by COVID-19, just as the coronavirus pandemic began to spread in New York. 

Her brother and father were hospitalized, and each day Dr. Gonzalez would come to work and assume all the stresses of administering a pediatric clinic in the face of an accelerating pandemic.

Although she was not in Spain, Dr. Gonzalez was constantly reaching out to the physicians caring for her loved ones so she could update the entire family. As a physician, she navigated the system easier than others but faced many roadblocks. She recognized these updates were the lifeline to her family and wanted to do something similar at Elmhurst.

Sadly, Dr. Gonzalez’s brother and father died of COVID-19 within a week of each other. 

Despite these devastating losses, she remained at work, focused on helping families in New York.

Talk of a patient hotline at Elmhurst was under way, and Dr. Gonzalez took the lead. 

She orchestrated a team of physicians to respond to COVID-positive patients who were calling the hospital to discuss test results. A separate phone line was simultaneously established for the purpose of allowing families to call in with questions. These phone calls are returned by Elmhurst physicians.

In addition to the family hotline, Dr. Gonzalez created the Adopt-a-Floor program. 

One or two physicians are assigned to a COVID unit, including our intensive care units. Each day they review the charts, gather pertinent information and call the families with updates.  

When the staff make these calls and write telephone notes in the chart, she has asked us to document the reason for the call as the JG Family-Patient Connection, named for her father, Jose, and brother, Jesus Gonzalez. 

Dr. Gonzalez has done an amazing job for the families of patients hospitalized with COVID in the wake of the heartbreaking loss of her father and brother. 

At the peak of these programs, more than 500 phone calls were being handled every day, seven days a week, by pediatricians and other physicians from Elmhurst. Physicians from other pediatric facilities have also pitched in, and overnight calls are answered by residents. 

Dr. Gonzalez’s colleagues designed this logo, featuring the colors of Spain’s flag, and gave it to her in a frame. 

Our staff is making a difference in the lives of the families we serve. 

Our patients look forward to our daily calls because they know they can turn to us for compassion, reassurance and hope. I am proud to have her as my colleague and friend.

Send in your COVID-19 pandemic story, and we may share it here and on our social media channels. https://bit.ly/2XVvJIu

*The views expressed in this article are those of the author, and not necessarily those of the American Academy of Pediatrics.