As we move into the summer months, COVID 19 is still very much of part of our everyday existence. While more than 3.4 million California workers have lost their jobs, (one in six workers in the state), our agency is fortunate and very thankful. We’ve added a few clients, retained most of our clients, and we’re proud of our health and safety record so far.
Our caregiver, Pauline, was featured by Kaiser Health News, which showed how she wore a mask and gloves and practiced safe infection control procedures while caring for her 97 year old client. I was proud to be featured by American Will, a social media company that profiles how CEO’s handle adversity.
Our clients and staff have all remained virus free so far, despite some precautionary self-quarantines when a second level contact may have been exposed.
Too keep that positive record, let’s continue to wear masks, wash our hands frequently, use hand sanitizer, and meticulously keep our homes, cars and work places extremely clean. Stay six feet away from other people, especially in public, and avoid touching your eyes or mouth.
In honor of their hard work, all of our staff are receiving Appreciation Pay for the next two pay checks. This money comes from a grant awarded to At Home Nursing Care, and does not rely on extra payments from any of our clients. Of course, I wish it could be more, but we must all be mindful of our good fortunes as others have suffered so deeply.
There will come a time that we will be asked to take COVID 19 positive patients. We’ve secured the necessary PPE, (Personal Protective Equipment), and we’ve reviewed and updated our safety and care procedures.
In a meeting of Home Care Ceo’s across the country recently, Dr. Steven Fox, who specializes in Geriatric and Disability Medicine, stated that face shields alone are 92% effective in blocking the virus from infecting a health care worker. With that in mind, we’ve purchased hundreds of face shields, along with N95 respirators, surgical masks, hand sanitizer and gloves. Any staff assigned to a COVID positive or presumptive positive patient will be notified, properly trained and properly supervised.
