EPISODE 5. As Omicron sweeps the world Guy and Matthew speak with Darcy Jaffe, a Senior Vice President at the Washington State Hospital Association responsible for Safety and Quality. Darcy discusses how collaboration, cooperation, and communication across hospitals has increased COVID safety and what safety in a hospital really means. We discuss how rural hospitals have met the challenges of COVID and the serious risks when a neighboring state has a different response to COVID and drains local resources. Conversations explore the complications, and the vital needs, of mental health care during the pandemic, how maternity care and giving birth in hospitals has changed during COVID, and why Washington state is a leader in COVID care. Also, Guy helps Matthew learn what a travel nurse is and how to correctly pronounce 'Om... Om.. Omicron".

EPISODE 4. Building on the success of the previous 3 episodes, in episode 4 we meet Sommer Kleweno Walley, CEO of Harborview Medical Center. She takes us through the early response to Covid 19 at a senior administrative level. Recounting the essential creation of the Washington Medical Coordination Center, an organization of all major hospitals in the NorthWest that battles to contain the devastating effects of Corona Virus on hospital systems. We also hear about her successes and challenges in keeping “the doors open” at our vital level one trauma center. Episode 4 highlights the massive drain the pandemic has placed on all health care, city wide, regionally and nationally, and how we still have a long way to go before we can defeat this virus and restore normalcy again.

In Episode Three, Matthew and Guy speak with Dr. Chloe Bryson Cahn, a professor of Infectious Diseases and a physician whose expertise is stopping the spread of diseases like the coronavirus.She explains how she treats infections and builds protocols that keep patients and staff safe and we hear her frustrations about what has been the most momentous and terrifying year in world health in the last century - and celebrate a few healthcare victories.

Episode Two dives deep into what happens on a Covid 19 Intensive Care Unit at Harborview Hospital in Seattle, ground zero for the US outbreak. We meet Matthew Cazier, a critical care Registered Nurse working in these dangerous and challenging units. We hear how patients are helped when they are in crisis, the sometimes desperate measures staff undertake to keep patients alive and how healthcare workers keep each other safe from a potentially deadly virus. We learn how lungs work and how ventilators work.

Emergency Room: The Covid Diaries, is a true-life look behind the headlines first-hand account of what it was like behind the scenes at a major American hospital as the Covid-19 pandemic swept through the United States as seen by nurses and doctors who dealt with the unprecedented crisis every day.

Told through the eyes of Guy Maddison, a Registered Nurse at a level one trauma center in Seattle, Washington, Emergency Room tracks the on-the-ground medical response as the virus arrived on US shores. We learn about the massive operations required to protect healthcare workers and the public from the disease, the personal fears and anxieties of patients and staff, and what went right and what went horribly wrong.

Anchored by journalist Matthew Hall, who steers us through the often harrowing and sometimes humorous journey asking the questions medical and epidemiology newbies want to know and help explain why this story remains as relevant today as April 2020.

In Episode 1, we hear about a devastating motorcycle accident and the massive trauma suffered by the rider - but before he can be treated there’s something all patients need to provide - a Covid test. We meet Vanessa Makarewicz, RN, the Infection Prevention Operations manager for Harborview Hospital in Seattle, Washington, who leads us through the opening hours of the pandemic, the late night texts between medical specialists, and the building wave of cases about to knock down the doors. Read more about Emergency Room: The Covid Diaries at Ruinous Media, listen and subscribe below!