Dr. Scott Price poses for a picture in his Personal Protective Equipment at Mount Sinai Queens Hospital in New York while answering the call to help healthcare professionals due to the COVID-19 outbreak. (Courtesy photo)
As political campaigns are starting to peak, one long-time Billings doctor and new political candidate did not get the party memo in making sure his campaign is firing on all cylinders at the time that absentee ballots go out in the mail. Dr. Scott Price told the Yellowstone County News by phone on Monday that even though he’s a candidate for the Montana Legislature, another call to serve his country and fellow man was answered when the “call for healthcare providers” went out to the masses in preparation for the COVID-19 outbreak.
He said, “I signed up with the Montana Healthcare Mutual Aid System” but after finding minimal exposure in Montana, he “was contacted about a need for physicians at Mount Sinai Queens Hospital” in New York.
Queens was considered ground zero due to 95 percent of all air transportation jobs are located in Queens which is home to LaGuardia and JFK Airports.
It is believed that Queens was exposed to the COVID-19 virus earlier compared to other boroughs since a large fraction of the airport personnel reside there – with more than 60 million passengers traveling through those airport hubs annually.
The ground transportation is the second largest employment sector in Queens.
Because the borough accounted for 58 percent of all transportation jobs which included taxis, Uber drivers and bus drivers, Dr. Price had to use his previous experience and Spanish skills he learned as a young LDS missionary in Buenos Aires, Chile, to communicate with those Spanish speaking patients who admitted themselves to the hospital.
Dr. Price is fluent with the Spanish language as he and his wife returned to Billings within the last year from another call to serve as an Area Medical Director over 5,000 missionaries in Chile, Paraguay and Argentina for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His Greek skills, though, were not so good as Scott says “about one in 10 people speak Greek” in Queens, and it “truly was Greek to me, so I would have to go find a video conference translator so I could eventually help my patient,” he chuckled.
Even though Dr. Price filed his paperwork in January to run as a candidate for the legislature, luckily for him, no one else filed to run against him in the Republican primary election.
In reflecting on his opportunity to serve the people in New York, he said, “Though the hours are long, especially being in personal protective equipment for the majority of a 12-hour shift, the work has been personally rewarding to help care for these patients. The patients, families, doctors and nurses here are grateful for any assistance they receive. It has been particularly uplifting to hear the New Yorkers cheering on the first responders and frontline medical workers each evening at 7:00 PM.”
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