Since the pandemic began, many staff across Osler have stepped up and into new roles to do whatever needs to be done to ensure the health and safety of our communities. For some staff that meant being redeployed to other areas in the hospital. For others, like Eddie Camilleri, it meant taking on a whole new set of responsibilities that didn’t exist before the pandemic.

Eddie is Osler’s Corporate Energy Manager, which means he manages the hospital’s utility spend and looks at creative ways of reducing energy consumption through building systems such as HVAC or lighting. When Osler Foundation launched a PPE Collection Drive to collect personal protective equipment in preparation for an escalation in COVID-19 cases, Eddie assumed a new host of duties around receiving and managing donated supplies in addition to his day-to-day duties as Energy Manager.

“When we asked for donations of PPE from the community, we were overwhelmed by the response,” says Eddie. “It is amazing to see the generosity; even if it was sending a box of gloves, people really wanted to help us in a time of need.”

Throughout the pandemic response, Osler teams have had to be nimble to meet new and unexpected challenges, and this new role was no exception.

“The facilities team, and the materials management team had to come up with some creative solutions to even hold the volume of in-kind or PPE donations received,” says Eddie. “Every day there have been some challenges to overcome. There's been a lot of teamwork and I’m really proud to see everyone rising to all of the unique challenges that came up in this very trying time. The adaptability of our staff has been great to witness.”

Eddie says he’s been touched by the outpouring of support.

“It’s everything from companies that were donating a large amount of PPE, to a family that ran to Costco and picked up Gatorade, chips and other little things,” he says. “Someone donated hand cream that they made on their own and they included about 100 hand-written messages. You know a lot of time—a lot of love—went into these donations.”

Now more than ever, your hospital needs your help. Vital life-saving equipment is needed to ensure that our hospitals can keep up with demand.