HCAOA The Voice Summer 2020

9 Spring/Summer 2020 FEATURE ARTICLE A RECURRING THEME THROUGHOUT THE PANDEMIC has been the resilience of home care, and how vital it is to help protect seniors and prevent the disease’s spread. As mentioned in our last Value of Home Care report, home care clients are nearly 10% less likely to require hospitalization. And home care clients require 25% fewer doctors’ visits. In driving down demand for chronic care at hospitals, home care was vital in helping to clear the lane for acutely ill COVID patients. To maintain this protective position, home care agencies need to be prepared and concentrate on concise and continuous communication. “There was a whole bunch of unknown at the beginning,” said Brad Needham, Director at Bayada in New Castle, Delaware. “We needed to have an answer for all of our clients and patients and their families, as well as our caregivers and office staff. There were plenty of questions from all sides.” “The biggest immediate change was how we interacted within our communities whether it be the workplace, during transit, shopping for supplies, or in our homes/apartments,” said Kelly Takemura, Director of Nursing at SelectCare in New York City. “Being at the epicenter of this pandemic, in a heavily congested metropolitan area, it is very difficult to practice ‘social distancing.’” How Home Care Progressed During the Initial Outbreak Needham said that education has been the most important step for his caregivers. “There’s a big download to do with each individual before they go into a home. Not only do they need to have access to personal protective equipment, but they need to know the proper steps in removing and disposing of PPE, when to don and remove it, and they need to make sure that everything fits. For some of our caregivers who have longer shifts, keeping a mask on for 12 hours and completing duties is a huge challenge. You have to cross every ‘t’ and dot every ‘i.’” But education can only be useful if caregivers have access to PPE. Home care agencies have had to band together in many occasions to ensure that vital equipment makes it to the front line. “We had sufficient supplies to meet immediate needs; however, it became apparent within days that our inventory was depleting rapidly,” said Takemura. “Access to approved PPE through reputable vendors became increasingly challenging up until recently. We have been able to sustain an adequate supply of PPE onsite by consis - tently contacting known vendors and utilizing alternative channels. This included contacting other home care agencies to obtain additional vendor resources in addition to asking staff to reach out to members of their community to identify possible resources.” Needham tells a similar story. “The biggest issue, by far was securing PPE,” he said. “Once we did that, we felt ready to respond. I found myself running fit test serums for our N95 masks between my house and two or three other locations here in Delaware to ensure that we could make our PPE as effective as possible.” “Unconventional methods to source suppliers becomes a full-time job in and of itself,” said Takemura. Taking Care of the Caregivers The impact to caregivers has gone beyond the physical risk, however. With child care services closed to most Americans, many home care workers have been unable to take their assignments. Additionally, some caregivers have had family contract the virus, or have contracted it themselves. “From our end, we’ve tried to be as fair to our caregivers as possible,” said Needham. “Bayada has a relief program in place for our caregivers who have lost client hours, had to decline work due to child care, or have gotten ill themselves. And where it’s been Home Care Agencies Rise to the Occasion Throughout COVID Outbreak continues on next page >> Bradley Needham - Bayada, Delaware Roslyn Foreman - Bayada, Delaware Kelly Takemura - SelectCare, NYC