Home Health Care under COVID-19
As COVID-19 continues to play havoc to life as we know it, some members of our community, like the elderly, are more vulnerable than the others.
We sat down with the VP of Clinical Operations of a mid-size Home Health & Hospice Agency to get his insights on how things have changed with this outbreak; as well as how they are dealing with new paradigm.
COVID-19 has dramatically affected our organization up to this point in very real and interesting ways. With the push for limiting contact, while also service in the capacity as care providers it has been a challenge to come together and figure out how we do less visits while providing the same amount of care, or at least the same level of oversight and care. We have had to get creative with utilization of telephonic education, assessment and observation with verbal cues rather than visual ones. Of course, there are still many visits that we have to do on site, we are adhering to all CDC and Medicare recommendations for continuing with providing cares.
Q. What has been the implications for your caregivers?
In many ways our caregivers are at a heightened risk for contracting this infection because of our method of care delivery – in the patients’ homes. We are seeing people who may not feel sick or even have any idea they might be ill – whereas the hospital sees people once they are clearly not feeling well and therefore already have a heads up to take precautions. With the nationwide shortage on PPE – Personal Protective Equipment – such as Gowns, Masks, Gloves and Hand Sanitizer, we have had to be especially aware and very careful. All employees are monitoring temperatures twice per day and anyone with a temperature has to be placed in isolation for 2 weeks – or until we get a negative test for COVID-19 (which is about impossible to get in Utah since they are not testing many people).
Q. How are the outbreak of COVID-19 affected your organization’s operations?
COVID-19 has dramatically affected our organization up to this point in very real and interesting ways. With the push for limiting contact, while also service in the capacity as care providers it has been a challenge to come together and figure out how we do less visits while providing the same amount of care, or at least the same level of oversight and care. We have had to get creative with utilization of telephonic education, assessment and observation with verbal cues rather than visual ones. Of course, there are still many visits that we have to do on site, we are adhering to all CDC and Medicare recommendations for continuing with providing cares.
Q. What has been the implications for your caregivers?
In many ways our caregivers are at a heightened risk for contracting this infection because of our method of care delivery – in the patients’ homes. We are seeing people who may not feel sick or even have any idea they might be ill – whereas the hospital sees people once they are clearly not feeling well and therefore already have a heads up to take precautions. With the nationwide shortage on PPE – Personal Protective Equipment – such as Gowns, Masks, Gloves and Hand Sanitizer, we have had to be especially aware and very careful. All employees are monitoring temperatures twice per day and anyone with a temperature has to be placed in isolation for 2 weeks – or until we get a negative test for COVID-19 (which is about impossible to get in Utah since they are not testing many people).
