AtlantiCare’s ‘Superman’ postponed his retirement so he could help save lives during the pandemic

When Mike Merlino ended his a 44-year career with the AtlantiCare health care system, well-wishers were there in force, sharing "amazing Mike stories,” including that he actually postponed his retirement to help his colleagues get over the COVID-19 hump. At his October 15 celebration, there was lots of laughter, and tears. And if not for the pandemic, there would have been hugs, too, for someone who’d come through so often for so many people.

But Merlino wasn’t an ER doctor, a chief surgeon, or a nurse. His title was logistics supervisor for the AtlantiCare supply chain, working out of the system’s warehouse in Egg Harbor Township. So he wasn’t on the frontlines of medical care. But he made sure the frontliners had what they needed to do their life-saving work day in, day out, for decades.

“If you don’t have the tools to do your job, you can’t execute your job,” said Terri Schieder, an AtlantiCare vice president who has known Merlino since she herself was a staff nurse in the 1980s. “Mike was there to make a difference in our lives so we could make a difference in our patients' lives.”

Merlino, though, modestly passed the pass to his team.

“My success is from you all,” he told them at his retirement celebration. “We’ve worked through a lot of difficult situations and you’ve all been there."

Merlino played his essential, behind-the-scenes role as AtlantiCare grew into a multiple-site South Jersey regional medical system. He computerized the warehouse, bringing the organization’s order and tracking of materials online, and developed the organization’s courier program.

But “Pops,” as he was affectionately called, had also memorized the materials-management numbers of over 1,300 supplies. If the computers crashed or someone needed quick data for a meeting or to order something fast without looking it up, they just had to ask Pops.

Over years, hurricanes, blizzards, driving rain, and ice storms couldn’t keep him from getting materials where they were needed. Colleagues talk about the time he drove through 22 inches of snow in the middle of the night to bring crucial supplies to one of the hospital’s campuses. And during Hurricane Sandy, when power was knocked out for days, Merlino and his crew threw open the warehouse doors to let in daylight and used flashlights at night to keep the supplies coming.

“Mike is Clark Kent with Superman’s cape,” said Darren Clinkscale, AtlantiCare director of property management. Mild-mannered Merlino, he said, was the first to arrive at the warehouse and the last to leave. Even though it wasn’t Merlino’s responsibility, Clinkscaleadded, Merlino would be outside clearing snow when there was a storm.

“My responsibility is to make sure the buildings are open, and everybody’s safe,” Clinkscale said. “Mike beat me to the building.”

“It’s all heroic,” said Barbara Young, assistant vice president for procurement services and Merlino’s supervisor. “But Mike has just handled it. He sets the tone for his staff. They never complain.”

“I always considered myself not a boss but an equal to them,” Merlino said. In fact, during a remodeling of the warehouse a few years ago, he had a sign hung that read “A Team” in honor of his crew.

Merlino said he got his work ethic from his father, a hard-working man who taught his son to take pride in his work at AtlantiCare (where his wife, Vicky, also worked; a unit secretary, she is now retired).

“My aspiration was never to climb the ladder into management circles. It was to do the best I could do at what I was doing and keep my little world working,” Merlino said. “If my little world was doing what it was supposed to do and everybody was dedicated, it would help the greater cause – caring for the patients.”

No one, however, could have anticipated the challenge of COVID-19.

Even early in the pandemic, patient surges drove an exponential need for key supplies. At hospitals around the country, shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) like face masks was national news.

“We used to go through 40,000 face masks a month,” Young said. Overnight, the number jumped to 100,000. "All the departments were panicking, understandably, and ordering high quantities. Mike had to selectively reallocate to various departments.”

Merlino’s institutional knowledge was encyclopedic. And although he’d planned to retire in June, and had been training his replacement, Merlino realized that asking a new person to take over during a pandemic was a lot to ask. Young,thinking the same thing, approached Merlino back then with a request.

“I said, ‘Mike, can I talk you in to staying longer?’ And he said, ‘You know, I’ve been thinking about that. I don’t think I can leave you,’” Young recalled. “I jumped on that. I said, ‘Oh, Mike.’”

Merlino talked it over with his wife and settled on an October retirement, just after he turned 65. Then he went about doing the job – judiciously allocating what was in stock, getting the supplies where they were needed, finding new vendors if the old suppliers had run out. It was a supply guy’s perfect swan song.

“I can say with all confidence that had we not had Mike here, our caregivers in our hospitals and off-site locations would not have had the products they needed to keep themselves safe and to keep our patients safe," said Young.

Thanks to Merlino, AtlantiCare was even able to help out some of its fellow institutions, she added.

“Our neighboring hospitals were borrowing from us,” said Young. “That is a significant difference from what most hospitals encountered.”

Given the pace of the the last ten months, Merlino has not had chance to make a retirement plan yet. But he already knows what he’ll get misty about.

“I’m going to miss the daily camaraderie with my staff,” he said.

But it will be nice to not have to hit the roads on those snowy mornings, said Merlino. And he’s looking forward to “grandkidding” – being available to do things with his four grandchildren whenever he wants. He might even think about getting a little part-time job to keep him busy. And if COVID ever settles down, he and Vicky will probably do a little traveling.

“Nothing major," he said. "Just relax and enjoy life.”

His advice for the guy who is replacing him isn’t so different from his approach to life.

“Just stay calm,” Merlino said. “Even in critical situations, it doesn’t pay to run around like a chicken without a head. You got to take a step back and just deal with the situation. Just do it right. That’s the main thing.”