“Faced with COVID-19 we most needed to deliver safe care to our clients and families, and ensure that our teams were safe. The systems we have put in place are working. Now we need to remain vigilant to stay safe.”

“I’m currently regional executive director for Integrated Services: Specialized Community Services Programs, Complex Medical and Frail (SCSP-CMF) -- Home Health/Home Support. I had just finished work on the Home Support Transition project when COVID-19 hit. It brought me to a new role -- to lead COVID-19 planning for Home Health and Home Support. What we most needed was to deliver safe care to our clients and families, and ensure that our teams were safe. That was the foundation for everything we did. I kept the image of my own mother, who has dementia and is living in long-term care at the forefront of my mind – she trusts her family and the health care system to keep her safe. That was my goal for all of our families and clients. I had the privilege of leading the Home Health/Home Support Coordination Centre with a remarkable team. Our team was committed to being ‘on’ all the time and always kept a positive ‘can-do’ attitude. Infection prevention and control, logistics for supplies, education and communication, screening mechanisms for community health workers, COVID-19 testing in the home, deploying staff to facilities with outbreaks – our team worked on all of it. We created an online education module to reach 3,000 community health workers to support their safe use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). We implemented client screening questions at every home visit along with use of appropriate PPE. Putting these client screening mechanisms in place was vital to keeping our workers safe. We worked with IMIT to develop a screening process for community health workers before they started work. It was modeled after the screening process for long-term care staff. Community health workers complete the symptom questionnaire through an app on their Fraser Health phone at the start of their shift. The nursing supervisors can then review the information and follow-up as needed. The system has caught symptoms early and thus helped avert outbreaks. Our team also led the deployment of staff to support contracted long-term care and assisted living sites with COVID-19 outbreaks. We built a relief care team and successfully deployed over 230 staff into Fraser Health-affiliated facilities when needed. Safety is a common goal and positive principle that has guided our work. I’m so proud of our team’s commitment to each other, our clients and our families. The systems we have put in place are working. Now we need to remain vigilant to stay safe. We will make it through this pandemic by working together, and we will come out a better organization than when we started.”