StC News
StC Alumnus Supports NYC Health Care Workers
Lankford Wade ‘95 keeps health care workers supplied and supported on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19.
As chief financial officer at Summit Medical Group/CityMD, Lankford Wade ‘95 and his group are squarely in the middle of the effort to provide care to patients in New York City, one of the hardest-hit areas of the United States with regard to COVID-19.
Wade is responsible for running the group’s finances, and much of his work lately has been the procurement of essential medical supplies and testing kits. “It’s my job to ensure that all the back-office pressures that might exist in a traditional medical practice are taken care of so our clinical workforce can show up every day and think of nothing else but how to take care of patients.”
The group, which owns and operates 130 urgent care facilities in and around New York City, conducts thousands of coronavirus tests per day, and Wade pays close attention to the disease progression.
At one point, he estimated that his group conducted more than 25 percent of the COVID-19 testing in the area, which placed a heavy burden on urgent care staff and continues to push their limits. “We have to figure out how to motivate the workforce to show up for work every day, knowing that they are going to be on the front lines and engaging with the sickest of the sick and risking their own health,” said Wade.
“It’s almost like they’re on the front lines of a war. They have to walk into an urgent care center where there’s likely a line of people that want to come in the door who are all displaying symptoms of the virus.”
During such a challenging time, Wade credits much of his attitude toward teamwork and resilience to his time at StC. “It taught me how to play a role as a team member,” he said. “In an environment like this one, you have to realize that you can trust the person next to you, just like when I was a member of the St. Christopher’s football team. You do your part and play your role, and the person next to you will play theirs.”
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