How a Cardiothoracic Manager is Coping with COVID-19 in the Office

The outside entrance of one of the Washington University Hospitals located in St. Louis County.

*Abby Schnable, the author of this article, is the daughter of Stefanie Schnable*

When Washington University in St. Louis announced that all departments needed to send people home in March due to COVID-19, Supervisor of Patient Quality Stefanie Schnable entered into a "shitstorm." Carrying computers to her inferior’s cars, she began to transition the Cardiothoracic Surgery Department to a work from home environment.

Schnable oversees 42 workers in her department, a combination of medical assistants, nurse practitioners and secretaries to the surgeons in her department. Since the pandemic began, she took over the COVID-19 reports and now 172 are directed to her if they think they might have contracted the virus.

She said it’s changed everything about her work. Every day is different. Her daily activities aren’t the same as what they were. There’s more communication and monitoring of staff because of the pandemic.

“I’ve been on call 24/7 for 32-33 weeks,” Schnable said. “It’s helped me grow and learn how to pivot quickly, communicate better. Public speaking is one thing I hate and I’ve had to be front and center at weekly town halls, weekly staff meetings.”

The Cardiothoracic surgery department shut down the day after St. Patrick’s day. According to Schnable the workers were informed on the Irish Holiday itself.

“My three chiefs and my boss were out of town — one of which was actually out of the country,” Schnable said. “So, I was the last man standing in the office. From Mexico my chief called and said ‘kick everyone out.’”

A mass exodus ensued of every single person in the department gathering their belongings for what they might need in their indefinite work for home experience. Schnable said she “looked like a thief” helping employees carry computer equipment out to their cars to be prepared.

The department didn’t have a work from home plan. All elective surgeries were cancelled and all clinical appointments were cancelled. Schnable said her world was turned on its head. On top of it all she had to move her college-aged daughter back home due to the dorms closing.

Fast forward to July and people started coming back into the office. Schnable and Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery Ralph Damiano had to make a plan.

“We wanted to do it safely,” Schnable, 44, said. “The Chief of Cardiothoracic surgery and I got a tape measure out and walked to everybody’s desk to make sure it would be safe back in the office.”

A new workflow began with a hybrid format. People came into the office at least two days a week, but other than that continued to work at home. Schnable made a schedule to ensure there weren’t too many people in the office at one time.

“One of my employees actually told me, ‘You thrive in Chaos.’” Schnable said in response to having to adapt to the quick changing world of medicine during a pandemic.

She said the hardest part about all of it is the lack of time she’s been able to devote to her personal life. There were weeks where she spent 12 hours at the hospital. Other times, she was home by noon, but constantly on the phone troubleshooting issues.

Her work life balance was almost non-existent

“I’m not accessible to my family,” Schnable said. “I’m not accessible to myself as much because I have to take care of surgery and patients.”

While things have improved for Schnable, she said she’s still working on finding a new normal at work.