Neighbor Spotlight: Dr. Tinamarie Estes-Washington punches back against covid-19

Editor’s note: Neighbor Spotlight is a monthly feature that aims to let our readers learn more about the people in their communities who are working to make them a better place, who have interesting stories to tell or who the community feels deserve “15 minutes of fame.” If you would like to nominate someone as a Neighbor Spotlight, email Neighborhood News Network editor Katie Green at kgreen@triblive.com.

There’s a spring to Dr. Tinamarie Estes-Washington’s step that might not have been there around 10 months ago.

Her squinty eyes and scrunched forehead when she speaks through her mask convey delight – optimism, even. Overall, the doctor’s vibe is cheery these days.

It could be the hobble. She slipped and fell on ice recently and now wears a brace on her left knee. An MRI revealed the need for surgery on her torn ACL and meniscus, she said. She isn’t one to slow down. The brace has added a sense of urgency to her gait as she pushes through the discomfort.

It could be the tight schedule in a hospital setting that keeps her flowing into and out of departments. As director of nursing at Forbes Hospital in Monroeville, her role has her in all sorts of different departments tending to the needs of her staff of over 100 nurses.

But she’ll tell you it’s hope — a light at the end of a long, deathly tunnel hospital workers have trudged for the past year or so.

Estes-Washington, who has a doctorate in nursing practice, recently assumed a new role in the hospital as the supervisor of the hospital’s covid-19 vaccine clinic. The clinic, situated in a large room off the hospital’s cafeteria, has administered more than 13,000 vaccines since Dec. 18. On a typical day, she said, the clinic is able to inoculate around 350 people a day.

And not only is she the clinic’s supervisor, but she is also its main architect, designing the layout from the ground up with a team of other nurses and doctors.

Kristina Serafini | Tribune-Review

Sharon Greene, 70, of the East End closes her eyes as she receives her first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech covid-19 vaccine from Dannielle DeZorzi, a Highmark complex case manager, at Forbes Hospital Monroeville on Friday, Feb. 19, 2021.

“It was almost like a casual conversation, like, ‘hey, do you want to help with covid vaccines?’ and then it turned out to be my baby,” she said.

When the clinic launched, Forbes was experiencing its peak in covid-19 patients. Estes-Washington said there were anywhere from around 80 to 100 patients within the hospital at the time, which posed a challenge when it came to staffing the clinic with nurses who were already stretched thin.

With the demand for the vaccine so high, it didn’t take long to work out all the kinks, she said. For example, when the clinic launched, appointments were being taken on paper. They are now being scheduled through AHN’s “My Charts” program, and the network is working on making appointment scheduling available by calling 412-DOCTORS.

It’s a welcomed responsibility. Estes-Washington, 37, of Clairton worked for 12 years as a bedside nurse before moving into a management position around five years ago. Being in management at Forbes Hospital is rewarding, she said, but it’s different.

“Sometimes you don’t feel like you’re making a difference because you’re not in the room with that patient,” she said. The pandemic, she said, has made her feel like she’s not doing enough.

“You see your employees gearing up, you know, with their bunny suits and N-95s,” Estes-Washington said, referring to the garb typically worn in hospitals as personal protective equipment. “And they’re tired. But I have administrative duties, hiring.”

There was a point when Forbes converted three of its units into designated covid-19 units and relied upon additional nurses and doctors to help care for the sick. For a time, Estes-Washington was one of them.

“You create this bond with them and you hear later, or the next day, ‘so-and-so passed away.’ It’s heartbreaking. You wanted to be there or you wonder ‘did you do enough?’ or ‘could you have done something differently?’”

Punching back

On a Friday morning, a long line stretched out of the room that has served as Forbes’ pop-up clinic. It was around 10:30 a.m. At that point, the clinic had been open for four hours.

It was unusually busy, Estes-Washington said. The nursing staff of five administering shots had been reduced to four because one of them began feeling ill.

Leo and Arlene Woodward of Export are both over 80 years old. They had waited to get the shot for three months, after calling health providers and pharmacies and fumbling through online scheduling programs.

When the couple approached the table where nurses verify appointments, they were told their names could not be found in the system. Leo Woodward became frustrated. Eventually, it all worked out.