In recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we thank all of the heroic physicians, nurses, medical personnel, and facilities staff who continue to provide their patients with world-class medical care and safe, warm environments during this challenging time. While COVID-19 has forced us to reimagine many aspects of our lives, we know that the fight against breast cancer hasn’t stopped for a moment.

This month, DOC committed to elevating our breast cancer awareness efforts across our portfolio:

At the Baylor Scott & White Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center in Dallas, Texas, we’ve incorporated thoughtful pink touches throughout the facility, including a striking pink ribbon woven into the building’s signature living wall in the lobby. Property staff is sporting sleek pink and distributing pink bracelets inscribed with inspirational messages. The building’s patient programming has a pink twist, too, like this month’s Halloween pet costume contest with a special prize for the best pink costume.

In Nebraska, our tenants participated in a penny drive to support the local chapter of the Susan G. Komen Foundation. Each medical office received a glass vase adorned with a pink ribbon to collect coins. Over $250 worth of loose change was collected, matched by DOC to $500, and donated to the local Komen chapter.

Meanwhile, additional DOC properties in Washington and Kentucky have been distributing pink cookies to patients and health care partners to raise awareness for the fight against breast cancer. In Kentucky, the cookies are also supporting locally-owned, small businesses, as a trio of Louisville-based bakeries have signed on to create unique Breast Cancer Awareness Month-themed designs.

To all of our partners and staff working to raise awareness, lift patient spirits, and maintain safe spaces for patients to receive life-saving preventative care and cancer treatment, thank you.

This year, as usual, Earth Day fell on April 22, 2020, but observing the day was anything but business as usual. Celebrating Earth Day during the COVID-19 pandemic meant having to keep activities virtual and home-based. But did this slow down our team of talented and creative property managers? Not one bit! Our theme this year was “Water Smarter.” Here is a small sampling of DOC’s Earth Day activities across the portfolio.

Cami Miller and Lisa Shull of Bennett Williams Commercial, who manage DOC’s Harrisburg, PA portfolio shared, “We promoted the Water Footprint Calculator through a series of broadcast messages and social media posts. These messages included tips on water conservation and a link to the Water Footprint Calculator. If you haven’t tried the calculator before, it goes through a series of questions with a water graphic that rises or drops based on your input regarding your daily living habits and calculates your footprint and then provides tips for conservation in each category. It is interactive and informative and is a great resource for those looking for ways to conserve.”

Two groups created Earth Day newsletters. The first came from our Atlanta portfolio, managed by Lauren Whitlock, Von Terry, Nicole Felder, Kathie Coldmon, Nancy Ziegler, and Jaime Nance of Realty Trust Group. The team reported, “We decided to create one Earth Day Newsletter to distribute to all of our MOBS. With water conservation as this year’s focus, we incorporated statistics, its importance, benefits, a quiz, and residential and commercial sustainability tips. In addition to the newsletter, we offered a guessing game in the building lobbies, handouts, and candy grab bags for the tenants/patients.”

Scott Hedrick and Ben Chrystak, the team who manage our Nebraska portfolio, created a digital newsletter that included links to home-based activities to share with the family, useful resources, and daily helpful hint handouts focusing on different aspects of water conservation.

DOC’s Minnesota and North Dakota portfolios, managed by the Davis team of Alicia Davis, Melissa Gomes, Emily Gruenhagen, Peggy Schatz, Julie Helten, and Jerry Anderson, encouraged their tenants to “sign in for hope, encouragement, education” with their digital Earth Day diary. They shared their favorite sounds and sights related to water conservation with links to various water conservation-related TED talks, documentaries, and activities.

Barb Bennett and Sydney Friddle, DOC’s duo managing our Louisville/Lexington, KY portfolio, challenged their tenants to a competition to document and share their water conservation at-home efforts. Tenants were encouraged to get creative, involve their families, and send pictures showcasing the great things, big or small, they did in the community to help conserve water. Selected competition winners received water smarter-related prizes.

In addition to tenant-focused activities, our property management team was asked to conduct a visual inspection at each of their properties, looking for and noting leaky or outdated faucets and toilets, outdoor sprinkler systems, and other water-related equipment needing repair or replacement. After completion of the audits, property managers were asked to discuss their findings with their Regional Asset Managers to advise them what could be repaired or updated this year and what would need to be considered in future capital planning. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak and safety considerations, the timeline for those inspections was extended.

We appreciate the many creative (and virtual) ways to “Water Smarter” and for keeping focused on what’s most important now and always – our tenants.

Last winter, The Home Depot changed its slogan to “How Doers Get More Done.” Last month, when DOC launched an effort to solicit mask donations to support its health care partners in Dallas, Texas, nobody “got more done” than the generous team at The Home Depot.

The Baylor Scott & White Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center is the largest outpatient cancer facility in North Texas, rising ten stories above the surrounding medical complex, spanning 450,000 square feet of medical office space, and visited by over 2,500 medical professionals and patients on a typical day. A facility that size has incredible supply needs during the best of times, and the COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly presented a myriad of new challenges.

DOC’s regional property managers work hard to anticipate and address the needs of our tenants and to seek creative solutions. Our goal is always to provide best-in-class care so that our health care providers to focus on serving their patients, rather than building maintenance issues, supply chain logistics, and more.

To assist health care providers at the Baylor Cancer Center in securing needed masks for both patients and medical staff, DOC Sr. Property Manager Susan Leinweaver got to work immediately. She began installing signs throughout the facility encouraging the donation of masks, from the homemade variety for patients to manufactured surgical masks to N95 respirators for tenants. Susan also shared this need with service providers that support the BCC’s building operations. Courtesy of one of those providers, Yardi Marketplace, those signs found their way into the hands of The Home Depot’s National Account Manager, who responded in a big way.

As mask donations began to flow in, Susan and her team were overwhelmed by a generous delivery of a 3,500-pound pallet containing 10,000 masks, all courtesy of The Home Depot team. The masks are already being distributed throughout the facility, easing their burden during this challenging time.

Through an incredible team of property managers like Susan, DOC strives to go above and beyond in support of its health care partners. It’s inspiring to see community partners like The Home Depot answer that call as well.

Not all heroes wear personal protective equipment (PPE). Some just help procure and deliver it.

For medical providers across the country, maintaining adequate supplies of PPE has become an unexpected priority. For many, it’s also become an unexpected challenge. DOC’s regional property managers strive to always understand and address our partners’ needs, and when opportunities arise to ease a burden for a tenant, they are quick to lend a helping hand.

As the new realities of the current pandemic continued to set in for medical providers last month, DOC property managers for Ohio Amie Washburn and Angela Zarate learned that many of their tenants were struggling to purchase much-needed disposable and N95 masks. The two immediately got to work, identifying a local company, TKO Sales, that was transitioning its business to help address the mask shortage in the area.

Ultimately, DOC worked to purchase over 600 N95 masks to donate to local tenants in need, while also securing wholesale pricing for medical providers looking to purchase additional supplies. DOC partners at Orthopedic One in Columbus, OH, and at the Westerville Medical Office Building in Westerville, OH, have already taken advantage of the new mask pipeline.

Embodying “The DOC Difference,” Amie and Angela didn’t just open doors for their health care partners. They ensured the entire process—from purchasing through delivery—was seamless and efficient. Angela and her family even personally delivered many of the masks, along with homemade cards thanking all of the health care providers for the heroic service they are providing during these trying times.

At DOC, we take great pride in the relationships we’ve cultivated with our health care partners, and our staff is always encouraged to go above and beyond the call of duty to allow our partners to focus on what they do best: delivering world-class health care to the communities they serve. Sometimes even the smallest of acts, delivered with a personal touch, can prove heroic.

“We’re all in this together” isn’t just a cliché to the DOC property managers on the ground working with our tenants in these unprecedented times.

Recently, our partners at CHI Saint Joseph Health in Lexington, KY, received a generous donation of alcohol-based sanitizer from Buffalo Trace Distillery but were struggling to secure the appropriate bottles to dispense it. We were able to work with our local janitorial supplier, Leonard Brush & Chemical Company, to obtain 300 spray bottles, which we were proud to donate. It’s just one small example of how DOC is always willing to lend a hand (or in this case, a few hundred spray bottles) to assist our partners on the front lines.

Kudos to our Senior Property Manager Barb Bennett and the team at Leonard Brush & Chemical Co for pulling this together!