Notes from Glenn entering the 5th week of supporting our Clients & Caregivers with office team & nurses working remotely.
Clients
WFC lost one of our original clients last week. Florence V. had been with us since 2016 and lived with her devoted daughter who made tremendous accommodations to her home so that Mom could live with her. WFC helped care for Florence V. during the daytime when her daughter went to work. She will be dearly missed.
This past week, we took our first client on service who had been Coronavirus-Positive. He lives in an Independent Living community that WFC partners with and had been hospitalized and subsequently sent to the rehab center in the community. He was eager to come out of rehab and back to his apartment in Independent Living. He normally has a caregiver during the daytime and WFC is providing a night caregiver until he’s fully back to normal. We can provide the higher level of PPE and associated training to the caregivers supporting this client and future clients as they recover from Coronavirus.
PPE and Hand Sanitizer Are Hard to Find
Along with other health care services and facilities, WFC is finding it hard to obtain the right amount of PPE and other supplies. PPE is in greater demand with the requirements to wear masks for all shifts and higher level PPE needed for clients who have been exposed or positive for COVID-19.
Hand sanitizer has been especially challenging and Governor Cuomo had come up with a novel way to ease the shortage for healthcare and hospital workers. He has ordered NYS prisons to manufacture hand sanitizer and distributed to government agencies and the healthcare industry in priority order.
After several weeks, WFC was told we could pick up 20 hand sanitizers at the County Emergency Operations Center in Valhalla NY where I make weekly visits for available PPE. I had hoped for more than 20 bottles but respectful that would be all the State could spare for a home care agency, given they were also supplying so many higher priority entities. I was surprised and almost embarassed to see that NYS had allotted us 20 CASES of hand sanitizer! The weight of these 20 cases in my car’s cargo area weighed down the rear end down and left that NYS Clean aroma from the higher alcohol content.
We’re All in This Together
We have so much hand sanitizer now that I set about to thinking who else might benefit from our supply. I am a heavy business networker and regularly meet and confer with other CEOs and peers in the homecare industry. These have become de facto support groups which whom I can discuss business issues, problems, and opportunities especially in these times.
Every other principal in the home care business is struggling like we are to corral PPE supplies. I sent emails to several friends and competitors and made some socially distanced drop offs over the weekend. So I’ve ended up sharing the NYS Clean Hand Sanitizers with other home care providers. We’re all in this together.
Good Morning, Atria Woodlands!
The COVID-19 Pandemic has been particularly hard on Senior Living Facilities because their populations are the most susceptible to the Coronavirus. Consequently, there are no visitors or family members allowed in, nor can the residents leave their rooms. This has stretched the capacity of their healthcare workers.
WFC is doing a fair amount of work by placing supplemental staff with Senior Living properties in our area. One such place is Atria Woodlands in Ardsley, NY which reached out to us to provide a Home Health Aide (HHA) who could screen workers as they enter the Atria facility.
- Atria Woodlands was the Senior Living facility where my parents lived and was my intro to homecare. Fast Forward to today where several WFC clients reside at Atria Woodlands.
Screening is an especially sensitive issue because healthcare employees are working under the demanding circumstances of not being able to stay with their families. Consequently, they stay in hotels, tend not to eat right, or take proper breaks. Screeners are needed to check the temperature of every person coming to work at Atria.
WFC sent over Danso, a gregarious and engaging caregiver with a great personality. Moreover, Danso was equipped with the right PPE and is trained in taking the correct precautions. Danso transformed the screening process into a win-win for all. He makes these overworked healthcare professionals smile when they see him.
Thank You!
This past week, WFC showed our appreciation for the healthcare workers at Atria Woodlands by catering a Thank You Breakfast for them. As a true sign of times, Catherine Lanza, our Director of Business Development, was not allowed to bring the comestibles into the Senior Care Facility because of the safe distancing that Atria Woodlands is practicing for their clients. Instead, she left it outside the doors of their Independent Living wing.
There are neighborhoods across the country that step outside at 7PM daily to clap and bang pots in gratitude to our healthcare workers. I’d like to clap and bang a pot for all in our WFC family who are selflessly putting themselves out there to take care of clients.
“When we visit clients and caregivers we’re not just dropping supplies, filling a medi-set or taking blood pressure when we visit a client. We’re involved intimately with these clients and you can’t put a price on that. This period of time is showing all the caring and all the love that we put in.”
Catherine Lanza,
WFC Director of Business Development
STAY SAFE. STAY HEALTHY. STAY HOME.
Westchester Family Care Inc. assists people of all ages, by customizing home care plans to maintain a healthy quality of life and safety at home.
Contact WFC for an immediate family need or when planning for future needs: info@westfamilycare.com, 914-764-7500, www.westchesterfamilycare.com.
Westchester Family Care Provides Peace of Mind and Confidence that the Elderly Are Safe and Living with Dignity in Their Own Home.