SWEDISHAMERICAN HOSPITAL: We're so lucky to have Catherine Brant as a member of our Swedes family!

By Press release submission

Apr 29, 2021

SwedishAmerican Hospital issued the following announcement on Apr. 27.

We're so lucky to have Catherine Brant as a member of our Swedes family!

“Cat” works in our Laboratory Department, which is an area that has been extremely busy since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Her team has collected and/or performed just shy of 60,000 COVID-19 tests in the past year.

“It was a huge challenge for everybody on the team, but everybody stepped up to it fantastically,” said Cat, who has been at Swedes for two years. “We had to be extremely adaptive to the daily changes we faced regarding how to even start testing for COVID-19. Daily meetings were implemented to discuss different options for testing kits (most of which were still in development), how to handle result documentation and the influx of potentially infectious patient specimens. Additionally, we also faced supply and staffing shortages like many of the other departments in the hospital. There was a big change to the daily workflow with all the new procedures that were put in place. It was unlike anything any of us had ever done before but I am very proud of all of us. Testing for COVID-19 is now an important part of the admission process for all of our patients and each and every one of us contributed to it. I look forward to how we will adapt as a team to the changes we will face in the future. We've done some amazing work in the face of the pandemic and I'm sure we will achieve even more!”

Originally from Marengo, Cat said her love of science as a little girl led to her position in our lab.

“It was my love for science, anatomy, and the fascinating mechanisms that occur on a microscopic scale to keep the human body alive,” Cathy said. “I wanted to use my passion for science to help other people and the medical laboratory is a fantastic place to see that happen. My favorite part about working here is helping our patients in the best way I know how. Without the lab, physicians and nurses can only guess what is truly going on with their patient. As a result, we are an irreplaceable part of the diagnostic process. It is an incredibly rewarding feeling and it makes me proud of what I do!”

Thank you for sharing your hard work and skills here at Swedes, Cat!

Original source can be found here.