Left to right: Gregory Lewis, St. Luke's pharmacy process coordinator and compounding expert, Kelley Curtis, chief pharmacy officer, and Scott Milner, senior director of pharmacy stand among the barrels at Koenig Distillery.

Lucinda Madura, a sourcing manager in St. Luke's supply chain management, picked up these boxes of N95 masks from the United Way last week and delivered them to a St. Luke's warehouse for distribution.

The human spirit tends to shine brightest during trying times.

That’s certainly been the case as the St. Luke’s Health System tries to stay out in front of its needs as it battles the coronavirus.

One organization that has had a major presence in helping St. Luke’s is the United Way. For those in the know, that really shouldn’t be that surprising.

“St. Luke’s has taught us, and we’ve taught St. Luke’s over the course of many, many years,” said Nora Carpenter, the president and CEO of United Way of Treasure Valley. “Now, we stand shoulder to shoulder and more strongly than we ever have before.”

United Way of Treasure Valley has taken over a key role in gathering needed medical and hygiene items.

“Our efforts are intended to relieve some of the pressure on the St. Luke’s hospitals and clinics by creating a community front door for these sorts of items,” Carpenter said.

This door isn’t a physical one, however, but rather a virtual one. Donors are asked to go to unitedwaytv.org and fill out a form detailing what items they have available for donation.

United Way will then work with its partners to determine where those donated items will be best utilized – and how they should be collected.

“We’re not collecting these items at a centralized location, unless we have to,” Carpenter said.

Donations to United Way will be distributed locally throughout the state. Donations made in the Magic Valley, for example, will likely stay in the Magic Valley.

Carpenter admits the system isn’t perfect, but she and her staff have been trying to be resourceful in addressing needs during the coronavirus crisis.

“We don’t have volunteers right now, which is completely foreign to us,” she said. “We don’t have that added element because of a government mandate and from a health perspective.”

Still, supplies are coming in and St. Luke’s and United Way are working together daily to address the health system’s needs.

“We are particularly well-positioned to be partners during this crisis,” Carpenter said. “But we’re actually partners year-round on things that aren’t necessarily flashy and don’t get a lot of attention.”

As she continues to deal with this crisis, Carpenter said she’s been especially impressed with other partnerships that are coming together out of necessity.

“If there is an early win it is how creative and nimble some of Idaho’s companies have been as they try to retool and shift in medical support of some variety,” Carpenter said.

Scott Milner, senior director of pharmacy at St. Luke’s, has witnessed that firsthand – in a big way.

“We knew that there was going to be a shortage of hand sanitizer,” Milner said.

So, he and his team brainstormed ideas to address that shortage.

“At first, we were thinking maybe we could make five or 10 gallons,” Milner said. “But then we connected with our supply chain, and they use (hundreds) of gallons a month. That’s when I was like, ‘OK, we’re not going to be mixing this in the pharmacy.’

“So, this got serious, and by the end of the day it became clear that this was going to need to be a grander-scale operation.”

Then, a light bulb went off.



