PHOENIX — A Valley woman has made history as a pivotal leader in the Arizona medical community and another notch to her legacy is added as she helps in the fight against COVID-19.
Banner Health Chief Clinical Officer Dr. Marjorie Bessel has worked in the Valley for about 25 years and is now the highest-ranking physician and clinician for Banner Health.
Bessel was among the first health care leaders in Arizona to voice concerns about the COVID-19 virus.
12 News spoke with Bessel last summer as viral spread raged through the state. ICUs reached capacity, ventilators were running out and the death toll climbed.
"At some point we will exceed our capacity,” Bessel announced in June.
In November, she shared a grim outlook for the state.
"Our forecast tool paints a very dark winter for us ahead,” Bessel told 12 News at the time.
Bessel helped create the "Arizona surge line." The surge line is a system to help manage COVID-19 patient flow statewide in an effort to make sure no hospital would reach triage levels so long as other hospitals had capacity.
She also oversees physician wellness and burnout as the pandemic continues to take a toll on health care workers physically, mentally and emotionally.
"Almost everything has a clinical impact so having a clinician lead helps make sure we keep our healthcare workers safe and our patients safe. So, there's been a lot of long nights, a lot of seven-day weeks for months, months on end organizing that response for the pandemic,” Bessel explained back in February as the one-year mark since the pandemic was declared.
Bessel was well prepared for this type of work having been training in emergency response.
“FIMA trained. I went to an Army barracks in Anniston for a weeklong training. So, I usually do function as the director for our emergency response on behalf of the system,” Bessel said.
Bessel was recently named to the list of 2021’s Top 25 Women Leaders by Modern Healthcare, one of the country's leading publications on healthcare news.
But Bessel is not in this for the awards or to make history.
"It's very humbling to me because I would do those things without any of that," Bessel said.
She said being a doctor is what she was meant to do. She has known it since she was 5 years old and did not let anything get in her way to accomplish that goal.
“You know where I came from and the time that I trained things were very, very different and you know there were a lot of obstacles certainly I faced and others in my generation and generations behind me faced,” Bessel said.
Bessel shared a message for others who might be facing obstacles of their own.
“You don't have to have a lot of people in your family that have been in the industry. You don't necessarily have to come from a wealthy family to achieve great goals. You have to have that internal drive, that internal drive to do what is right,” Bessel said.
Bessel’s next goal is to help with pandemic recovery and whatever our "new normal" may be.
“There are silver linings from the pandemic that we need to look for, recognize and figure out if they are the right ones to implement for longer term health and well being,” Bessel said.