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Keith Grant: Serving our nation and our communities
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Veteran's Day is Friday, November 11. In this episode, we celebrate those who have and who currently serve and the special skill set they bring to their civilian roles. Hartford HealthCare’s Steve Coates talks with Keith Grant, APRN, vice president of operations for the Hartford Region and United States Air Force reservist.
Keith also served as Hartford HeathCare’s senior system director of infection prevention throughout the pandemic. Once COVID-19 hit Connecticut, Keith became one of the trusted voices and faces that would update the state regularly through the crisis. His expertise and leadership skills helped both his colleagues and the general public navigate through very uncertain times.
Check this episode’s links to learn more about Keith Grant, COVID 19 vaccines and resources and Hartford HealthCare’s partnership with Jamaica.
Follow More Life to be notified each time a new episode drops. Just search Hartford HealthCare on your favorite podcast platform.
Watch: Keith Grant - We Stand Together
Read: Hartford HealthCare Celebrates Special Partnership with the Jamaican Health Consulate
Hartford HealthCare: COVID 19 Vaccines and resources
I've learned to lead in the military. It's a completely different environment. And I'm very humbled by the bravery and the selflessness and the family commitment and institutional commitment.
SPEAKER_02Welcome to More Life. In this Veterans Day episode, we celebrate those who serve and the skill they bring to their civilian roles. Hartford Healthcare's Steve Coates talks with Keith Grant, APRN, Vice President of Operations for the Hartford Region and United States Air Force Reservist. Keith also served as Hartford Healthcare's senior system director of infection prevention throughout the pandemic. Once COVID-19 hit Connecticut, Keith became one of those trusted voices and faces that would update the state regularly through the crisis. His expertise and leadership skills helped both his colleagues and the general public navigate through very uncertain times. He's got a great story. Here's Steve Coates.
SPEAKER_01So do you think the pandemic is over?
SPEAKER_00The pandemic isn't no longer COVID-19. It's no longer debt from COVID-19, right? It's it's a mental health illness that's been caused by COVID-19. The pandemic is the economic starvation that certain individuals have had to go through in the last two years in order for them to survive and is trying now to recover. I think the pandemic is us collaborating. Let's hope that's not over, right? Or President Jeff Flax has a wonderful um statement on this, and it's it's what's normal. So normal was without the pandemic. Let's do better than normal, which is with the pandemic, we've rise to many occasions. We've changed lives, we've changed people's mindset. So it I don't think the pandemic is over. I don't think it's going to be over for a very long time.
SPEAKER_01We're heading into the flu season now, and we've had a couple relatively light flu seasons, some may argue because of the masks. Does that inform, does that persuade us to continue uh to wear masks?
SPEAKER_00As a provider, one of the things that I will say, if I have a patient that has a chronic lung disease or chronic um pulmonary condition, such as asthma, for example, a person that is of advanced age, a person who has some immunocompromised situation or condition, and a flu season is approaching, and dear, I say COVID-19 season is approaching, right? I think one of the things I would be doing going forward is consider having that conversation with my patient and saying, you know what, you probably want to consider wearing a mask if you're exposed to certain risky situations or environment, so to speak, right? Because we know we now have significant data that this is a life and debt discussion. Um, so that I think we've learned enough to know that a mask, for example, is a huge tool for us to protect patients, especially very vulnerable patients.
SPEAKER_01So, Keith, you've become or you became a leading voice of our response, Harvard Healthcare's response, and the statewide response, really, to COVID-19, one of the voices uh in people's living rooms every day. Uh things have slowed down a little bit for you in that regard. Tell us a little bit about your background.
SPEAKER_00So uh as I mentioned before, military background, and um I've been fortunate or unfortunate to be involved with many, I would say way too much disasters, right? So, not just from a deployment perspective, but I was in Hurricane Katrina. I had arrived in Deluxe, Mississippi. It took two weeks to witness Hurricane Katrina. I was in the military at that point in time. And there's so much that I learned from Hurricane Katrina. In fact, the the group that evacuated us from Hurricane Katrina, um, I ended up working with that in that same profession or same occupation as an aeromedical evacuation person a few years later because I was so inspired by that group. So um, and then after that, I had the opportunity to work with uh H1N1. I had the while in the military, I had the opportunity to work with, you know, when Zika came out from a healthcare perspective. I had the opportunity to work with Ebola and preparing for uh Ebola crisis when that was here as well. And then I came to Hartford in 2020, January 6, 2020, I came to Hartford. Primary role in coming to Hartford was Dr. Kumar and I had discussed this wonderful program that is geared toward access, it's geared toward quality, focus on quality in healthcare, not just for Connecticut, but a worldwide wide leader in quality and healthcare. I saw it as a wonderful opportunity to join a team that truly seemed at that point in time seemed to believe in this concept. And I still believe in that. We're doing good things or making big steps towards that. So that's kind of how I ended up at Hartford, huge military background, been in the military now for uh many, many years. And uh still in. I'm still in. So I'm I'm uh Air Force Reserve currently, and it's it's one of my favorite things. I still I do think genuinely that I still owe a lot to the military. I have a lot still to give back. My wife is uh huge in in supporting that. In fact, I went I came out of the military for like six months, and you know, and my wife told me I should go back in. She said, you know, there is something I'm a different person when I'm when I'm there. Like these I've learned to lead in the military. The military have taught me a lot. I've it's a completely different environment. And I'm very humbled by the bravery and um the selflessness and the family commitment and institutional commitment. And the military has no bounds when he comes on to bravery, right? So I'm hugely drawn to that. And at this point in my military career, one of the primary roles that I have is I get to um when individuals are getting deployed, I do, you know, medical assessments and I will do medical assessment when individuals come back in, we'll have the conversation about the 19-year-old who just got married and his wife's pregnant. And, you know, the regret isn't because he's deploying, it's just the concept of not watching his child being born, but that commitment to what the military stand for is like unwavering. So it's hard to step away ever from that. So I can I can see the I can see retirement at some point in time, but it's it's just that concept is very difficult to step away from, right?
SPEAKER_01Early in the pandemic, especially as you, as I mentioned, you being one of the voices of our response, of the statewide response to COVID and the politics involved in it, and just the seriousness and the fact that our neighbors and our friends and our families were getting sick. What toll did it take on you personally? Not just the long hours, but but also kind of having to deal with that.
SPEAKER_00So I'll tell you the easiest advice I got from within the pandemic, and I'm very lucky because I got this very early, right? So I'll tell you the first patient that we got that was diagnosed with COVID-19 at Hartford Hospital. So the first patient, in an interesting backstory with that patient and absolutely wonderful family. And, you know, I'm very close, still very close to members of the family, and you know, have so much respect and regard for them. But what happened is we have this patient, we have this disease that at this point, remember, we know very little off. We know it's a respiratory disease, and we have a general assumption of how we should approach prevention from a cure and treatment perspective. We have no idea what direction to go in. Like at that point, we're still not too sure. And we also weren't 100% sure. Like, if you came in positive, well, what are we gonna do with your family? Right. So I remember we had spent the a huge part of the the late evening into the night talking about what we're doing about this patient, how we're gonna manage the patient.
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SPEAKER_00Jeff Lex was present, um, Dr. Kumar was present, Dr. Prem Kumar was present, Dr. Ulysses Wu wasn't here at that point. Um, but everyone was there, Dr. Vankitesh was there, and we're having this discussion. And then I asked the question about what do you think we should do about the family? Because obviously I'm pretty sure they're exposed. What should we do? And within this room of like great visionaries and you know, there's scientists and all that stuff, and the one like non-scientific person, which is Jeff Flax, and he it's very simple, simple, simple advice was he's like, just turned and he calmed and he said, just do do what you feel is the right thing. Knows it. And we've carried that the entire way. Most of the conversations we've had, Hartford Healthcare will say this is the information that we have right now. Based on the information, based on the data, the best thing to do is get the COVID-19 vaccine. Those are statements very similar to what we've said. But we start the day with this is what Connecticut looked like, this is what the world looked like, this is how Hartford Healthcare is trying to help and trying to impact. And again, we appreciate what the community is doing and how the community is collaborating and cooperating, right? Um, and how much we're learning from the community. So most of our statements were very much like that. So the pressure that I felt was to ensure that every time we took the stage between myself and Dr. Kumar, that we were doing the right thing, and the right thing was to deliver the data that we had and talk about the decisions we made based on that data.
SPEAKER_01You were at the UN recently. Tell us why.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so um the General Assembly has been going on now for 77th meeting of the General Assembly. And um I think the primary initiative this year was about global health. There's a lot of conversation about equity, um, much to do with individual countries' response and recovery from COVID-19. And, you know, Hartford Healthcare has played a significant role in the management and recovery in the state of Connecticut. But I think more applicable or more relevant is the partnerships that we've had, or we have from a global perspective. Really early in the pandemic, we're contacted by the Council General of Jamaica to ask if we could help in any way. And one of the things that we developed and that we relied on heavily as a health system was a toolkit, a COVID-19 toolkit. I think everyone's pretty much acquainted with that document at this point in time. So we basically created a document that would be more specific to that country. Just kind of look at the epidemiology of the resource and adjoining resources, knowing that a country that size normally has other countries reaching out. So, you know, how do they go about vetting certain things such as PPE and so forth? So we created a document for them and they shared that document with the health system, and it became a tool that they they used. And um, we gave the okay for them to send it to whoever else wants to use it from country perspective, um, and so forth, and it was circulated. So that partnership started out of the pandemic, and then there's obviously a need for a third world or developed developing country to really partner with someone such as Hartford Healthcare with the advancement that we have within our health system and the resources, and of course, the willingness and the commitment for health access to everyone. So that's kind of how the partnership started, and you know, knowing that the Prime Minister for Jamaica was speaking at the General Assembly, we were invited as guests to just participate in that discussion about global health and so forth.
SPEAKER_01So the the they're tied. The this partnership with Jamaica and your visit to the United Nations are tied. And if people don't know, Hartford Healthcare and Jamaica, the health ministry signed an MOU a couple of weeks back, um kind of solidifying our partnership with them. Talk a little bit about how that all came about with Jamaica and what Hartford Healthcare has been doing.
SPEAKER_00You know, we have a very we have a large Jamaican population in Connecticut. Um, specifically, there's a large percentage of Jamaicans that are in Hartford and in Bridgeport, right? Um, and other other parts of the state of Connecticut. As I said, the initial contact and conversation started with the council general and the opportunity to work with a health system. Um, we started discussing, to be honest with you, Rebecca Stewart and Tina from your team, we started trying to figure out how we can make this as meaningful as possible, right? And that team got together and one of the things that, you know, we just based on the data that we have, is that, you know, we have a huge subset of population that exists within Connecticut that are Jamaicans. And um, how can we learn from that health system and apply conversations, apply, you know, any elements from that health system to our general population, Jamaican population that we have here. So that that thought process really is what we're seeing now, from at least from our perspective, right? This is kind of what we we would like out of this relationship is to ensure that we're doing as much as we can to not just to create access, but to personalize the medical care that Hartford Healthcare is delivering, not just to the Jamaican community, but any community. And this seemed like a really good opportunity to learn more about that subculture, that population. So that's kind of how that started. And what we realized really quickly is that the challenges that they do have, you know, if you look at the both systems, right? So the Jamaican health system and our health system, you can see that the challenges are very similar, even though the resources that we have significantly surpasses that which they have at their disposal. But there is still challenges where access is concerned, where trust is concerned, where willingness to engage is concerned. And the commitment from both parties was to appreciate how important it is for us to solve that problem. So that's kind of how that partnership, in the pure theoretical model, that's how that partnership came about.
SPEAKER_01When we talk about developing nations, Jamaica, and and we saw the pandemic hit hard in South American nations as well. Is the issue is it technology, is it the transportation, is it everything? What what are the major barriers that that we see in developing nations where they were really lagging behind? I I guess it became geometric, the the gap between more advanced nations and those developing nations.
SPEAKER_00Steve, that that's actually a really good question. And you know what we found was that it's very difficult for us to use our assessment of our current system here at Hartford and then try to use that as a parameter for judging or or assessing what the gaps are in Jamaica. You know what I mean? Because we're significantly more advanced. In many, many ways, we're significantly more advanced. But if you look at the system, the resources that they have in place right now, even with those resources, people aren't accessing enough. There's an overwhelming problem when it comes on to uncontrolled diabetes, uncontrolled hypertension, cardiovascular disease is rampant. There is a, for example, during COVID-19, because they had to defer elective surgery, there's now a significant backlog on surgical cases. So even with the existing resources that they have right now, right? Not even considering the evolution that has happened over the last, I'd say, 10 to 20 years, from a science perspective, technology perspective, Jamaica is not even in that conversation yet, right? It's just how do they appreciate health care as a necessity, as a necessary means for wellness, as a necessary means for, you know, sustain, not just sustaining life, but also sustaining a lifestyle, if that makes sense, right? Um, so it's it's the gap is significant. Like if everything that you can think about, anyhow, any way you can think about healthcare, and we're thinking about healthcare, because we're immersed in such a system, when you start analyzing the Jamaican health system, the gap is significant. But when you take yourself away from this as that kind of a bias and go into the Jamaican health system and assess it, there's still a significant deficit, and a lot of it has to do with education. A huge amount has to do with access. And access, the difference in access that we find here versus deer is that you know Hartford Healthcare has over 400 plus buildings in Jamaica to get to a hospital from certain areas is hours and hours away.
SPEAKER_01Is you know a document or or an agreement that Hartford Healthcare has with Jamaica, it seems like you know it's a small piece of the puzzle, but it seems as though the UN has taken notice. People have taken notice is that even though it's a small step, this is a way that we can address this not only in Jamaica, but in other developing nations as well, with partnerships with bigger health systems with governments. You think that's kind of one of the positives that that came from the pandemic?
SPEAKER_00That's a huge positive. And it's not just with Jamaica, right? So when you think about who did we partner with, who do we continue to partner with throughout the pandemic? Yale and Hartford were, you know, hand in hand throughout this pandemic, right? And Trinity Health as well. These are systems that generally were considered competitors. Um throughout this pandemic, there has not been a uh judgment or conversation about Yale and Hartford competing at any in any means, right? And through that, we've now started to look at different areas that we can potentially collaborate on. And it's the same thing. Like when we build a platform in how we can help Jamaica, so far we've donated uh O2 concentrators, we've donated um over half a million dollars worth of PPE, we've donated millions of dollars worth of equipment to furnish a hospital and equip a new hospital in Jamaica, and we'll continue to do stuff. We've donated our virtual platform from SESI for medical students to use at the University of West Indies. We're working on finalizing that agreement. We're building reviewing policies, we've donated our health system as a ready access for consultant, which basically means if you're in Jamaica and something is wrong and needs for a specific neurology expert that is not available in that country. We're committed to create a pathway for conversations to be had, consultants or consulting resources to be shifted, I guess you could say, in that direction. But to answer your initial question, all this has been done knowing that this might need to be a template for the opportunity to work with someone else. Because there's other areas, there's other countries that we might be able to help with and you see, or President Jeff Flax was on talking about the donation to Ukraine in a dire time of need. Um, but this is the commitment, is how we can help. And it's a genuine question is how can we help? And uh if this is a template, definitely if someone's listening, reach out and we can we'll see how we can help.
SPEAKER_01And another thing from the pandemic, there's light that's been shined on the need to address equity in how care is delivered. Some might ask, why did it take this? Why did it take this event to kind of refocus us on this issue?
SPEAKER_00It's an excellent question. Now, there's there's a wealth divide that really defined the people who were really, really affected by COVID-19, especially in the beginning, right? Beyond that wealth divide, there's also what we saw was a racial divide, I guess you could say as well, based on the data itself. Um, but if you remove the pandemic and then you add another disease process, the impact itself that was being felt by these individuals were very much the same before the COVID-19 pandemic. The difference, I believe, is um you had a pandemic state that was rendering individuals no longer productive to the economic system. It's difficult for us to imagine that's the reason why we're focusing on this right now. But I think that's what started the conversation. And then people now realize that this was an issue that existed way before. You're right, COVID-19 really points it out, but it also pulled people away from a machine that was running very, very well, and these people were a significant part of it, and now they're no longer a part of it because they had multi-generational death, right? So you have grandparents, great-grandparents that are dying, historians within the family that are dying, caregivers are dying within the family. Because these people are unable to step away from their job, their minimum wage or barely above minimum wage job, right? Um, they're unable to step away from the high-risk occupation that they were performing, and hence exposure, and hence the increase of a potential COVID-19, and hence the fact that there's no focus on I have comorbid conditions, I have not been seeing a PCP or been engaged with the health system, or been engaged by the health system in order for me to ensure that my system is ready to fight COVID-19. It's an interesting way to approach it in that it really is it starts with that wealth, that line itself. It truly starts with that income line. And then we can get down to like, yes, there's racial disparities as well existing. But I think COVID 19 generally impacted the poorer off us the worse, which is really sad.
SPEAKER_01I guess it's hard to take to think about the pandemic and then and then reflect on the positives that have resulted from our um reaction from our preparedness for the pandemic. But you can look back and and say we're set up now in the future uh to address these things through partnerships and other things like that.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. And and you know, from a military mindset, there's a lot of things that I've learned how to approach true math, true science, through military teaching, and um through just life lessons. If you're unable to see the light through the thick, dense darkness, um, you know, that's where failure starts. It is easy for us to really sit back and dwell on what went wrong in this pandemic. It is quite possibly will go down in history as the worst experience for multi-generations, right? That being said, as you said before, there's collaborative efforts that's been achieved. There's advancements in science that was achieved and expedited because of the significant human suffering that was going on. The advancement in the vaccines, the advancement in certain research and approval process with the FDA and CDC, ACIP and so forth, that will change forever, right? Um, we're seeing more about mRNA technology being used now in other medications. Uh we feel we've made significant strides in how we're engaging in the community and how Hartford Healthcare is perceived within the community as a as an agent of genuineness and trying just to help, right? I can't imagine having all these advancements happen in one singular time frame without having the pandemic, right? You know, we had to rise to an occasion, but we couldn't do that by yourself. It was the reciprocating community that was there, ready to accept and also ready to give feedback saying, Keith, you guys are doing this wrong, and we'd look at the stories and see how we can adjust them in order to facilitate um people getting education educated about vaccine, people getting educated about kind of what they feel like they want to hear about, and that was important.
SPEAKER_01Keith Grant, thank you so much. Always a pleasure.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely, man. Thank you so much, brother. I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_02Check this episode's links to learn more about Keith Grant, COVID-19 vaccines and resources, and Hartford Healthcare's partnership with Jamaica. Follow more life to be notified each time a new episode drops. Just search Hartford Healthcare on your favorite podcast platform for Hartford.
SPEAKER_03I'm ready for my close up. All the faces start to light up. You know I love this feeling. I got more life in my life. If you feel it, then you know. We can go anywhere we wanna go. You're gonna love this feeling. We got more life in my life. And I don't hold back. I can do anything that I want, and I won't look back. Now I got this feeling in me. I can be who I wanna be. Now I'm rowing, I got more life in me. I'm ready for my close-up. All the faces that light up. You know I love this feeling. I got more life in my life.