After spending more than 25 years as an orthopedic surgeon at Beaumont, Dr. Jeffrey Fischgrund wanted to use his experience and expertise to help provide flexible, convenient care to the community across all Beaumont’s locations and services. When
he took on the role of chief of clinical services in 2019, he had no idea just how important that would be.
Early into his new role, Dr. Fischgrund began looking at ways to integrate service lines across all Beaumont’s hospitals and medical centers. The new focus on pulling teams together for instant communication and idea-sharing would pay huge dividends
when COVID-19 cases began pouring into the hospitals.
“COVID was new to all of us,” says Dr. Fischgrund. “What made a big difference in how we could treat patients was that the lessons learned at Trenton or Taylor could be applied at Troy or Royal Oak. We’d meet daily to learn best
practices, discuss resources and function as a larger team.”
While Beaumont teams had practiced and were prepared for natural disasters and mass casualty events, nobody was prepared for the challenges of a global pandemic. Dr. Fischgrund likened this to heading into a football game without a playbook. Being able
to quickly share the medical expertise across the system helped problems get resolved quicker.
Dr. Fischgrund was most inspired when people stepped up to the plate and led during extremely stressful times. “Dr. Paul Bozyk, a respected intensivist, led our ICU calls. He showed his strength as a leader and decision-maker. Dr. Dan Silvasi from
anesthesia simply made things work when we were dangerously close to running out of ventilators. I’ve worked with these doctors for 20 years and I was still blown away by their innovation and leadership.”
When vaccines began rolling out in December 2020, Dr. Fischgrund and his teams knew Beaumont had to be ready to protect employees, patients and the community.
“We knew we wanted to get shots in arms quickly and we were the right people for that task,” says Dr. Fischgrund. “With only three days to set up our clinics, departments like pharmacy, IT, supply chain and more came together quickly
and made it happen.”
Beaumont’s vaccination clinics quickly became some of the largest in the state and have since administered more than 400,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses.
Whether it’s impromptu vaccine clinics, increased mental health care, readily available urgent care or even immediate orthopedic care, Dr. Fischgrund sees the future of health care is progressive and efficient. And the patient is at the center of
all of it.
“Some of our recent projects focus on providing care in a way most of us aren’t used to, but people are looking for convenience and quality,” Dr. Fischgrund adds. “Mental health is another unmet need in the community that we’re
really looking forward to offering with the right people and resources.”
Dr. Fischgrund believes to best serve patients - at an individual level - you have to look at health care in its entirety.
“I love being a spine surgeon. I love taking care of patients and making a difference in their life, but now I’m hungry to evolve to that next step. I know I’m making a difference. Our teams make a difference every day. We’re going
to take community care to the next level.”