Vital Supplies, Vital Information: Meet Will Rosales

Will Rosales has the backs—quite literally—of those on the frontlines of the fight against COVID-19 at Massachusetts General Hospital. In his role as senior operations manager for Materials Management, one of his many responsibilities is making the daily and delicate supply chain calculations that ensure personal protective equipment (PPE) is always at the ready for those who need it.

He also has the backs of his own frontline staff. “So many of my employees are running around all day, helping with the bulk ordering, storage and distribution of all that PPE,” says Rosales. And with that group constantly on the move getting out vital products, Rosales says he soon realized vital COVID-19 updates sent via email were not getting to his staff.

“I had signed up for a text message service from Boston Mayor Marty Walsh’s office, and I was thinking a similar program would be useful for my own staff,” says Rosales.

He brought the idea to the Mass General Equity and Community Health COVID Task Force, also requesting alerts in languages including Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole and Cape Verdean Creole. That was on March 24. Fast forward just a few weeks later, and now every employee in Partners HealthCare can sign up for daily headlines and updates with text messaging in their native language. “It’s 2020 and this is how so many of us get our information nowadays,” says Rosales.

Prior to COVID-19, Rosales says staff would sit together for briefings and conversation, something that can’t be done now because of physical distancing. “The bite-size information on how the system is responding to COVID-19 and the ways people can protect themselves and their families lessens some of the concern I have for my employees.”

Adds Rosales, “Our work in Materials Management is meaningful. I truly love that every day is different and we’re solving new problems all the time. After all, we are a service department. And in this case, I’m glad I could be of service to my team.”