“We had existing emergency preparedness and disaster plans, but really with only a token reference to ‘emerging infectious diseases’,” says Grant Edelstone, Senior Director of Risk Management. “We didn’t have any pandemic policy or playbook.  Even the lessons learned from the swine flu preparation were mostly forgotten, with expired respirators and fit testing kits stored away in an unused closet. So we had to accept the fact that a pandemic was happening and we had to rapidly change our practices to prevent and mitigate outbreaks.”

With communities and programs located in multiple locations, and the prospect of the Support Services office employees working remotely, representatives from all areas of Covia’s operations began to meet as a COVID-19 Task Force to coordinate Covia’s response. With nine members, drawing from operational and clinical functions, Life Plan Communities, Affordable Communities, and Community Services, the Task Force allowed Covia to understand the impact of the pandemic from all directions. 

“The work of the task force was crucial in keeping the residents and employees safe during this pandemic. It allowed us to all share in ‘drinking from the fire hose’ and to dissect and process the information so that we all understood how it affected the organization not just our individual areas,” says Prab Brinton, VP of Human Resources. “This allowed us to provide cohesive solutions to our communities at large.” At first, the Task Force met by Zoom four days a week as Covia learned to extent of the changes that needed to be put into place. Eventually, the Task Force was able to meet three days a week, and now is down to twice a week.

Cynthia Shelby, Regional Quality and Care Nurse remembers “the endless hours and constant changes in the beginning, but my most fond memory is that the leaders decided to stockpile PPE and create the task force. I believe these two things afforded us favorable outcomes.”

Acquiring Personal Protective Equipment, or PPE, at a time when resources were scarce – and the sources were sketchy – was one of the first hurdles the Task Force addressed. Chris Ichien, VP of Life Plan Operations, tracked down N95 masks being sold from a remote warehouse in Southern California when all other avenues seemed closed. To provide steady supplies, Covia purchased PPE on behalf of the whole organization, which was stockpiled at the now-closed Los Gatos Meadows campus and disbursed to all the communities as needed.

Many of Covia’s Community Services programs stepped up, adapting quickly to the restrictions of the pandemic and providing all-important social connections to people as the virus caused isolation. When Market Day had to shut down its produce markets in senior affordable housing and senior centers, it delivered produce as people learned to find new sources of food and fresh produce. Social Call, which had already created a phone visitation program, switched entirely to remote visitation, as well as inviting people to send personalized greeting cards to people throughout the United States. And Well Connected’s phone- and online-based program was well situated to provide support not only to Covia, but to many other organizations as well. Tracy Powell, VP of Community Services, says that the ability to be flexible and pivot is a skill that she will take with her, long after the pandemic is over.

Along with flexibility, the Task Force helped Covia to think about what risks might lie ahead. With an awareness that fire season was fast approaching, Ichien set up contracts with hotels outside the fire zone to allow people from Covia’s communities to evacuate to a safe locations, should the need arise. In September, that foresight made a difficult situation a little bit easier as Spring Lake Village and Friends House residents evacuated to a hotel near Sacramento.

Senior Director of Risk Management Grant Edelstone was a linchpin of the Task Force, providing updates on the vast array of new regulatory requirements that emerged during the pandemic. In a recent survey, one respondent said, “I think the company response was great in general; personally, the support of the Senior Director, Risk Manager and my building Administrator was outstanding to navigate the early challenges of the response.” With more than 100 Provider Information Notices (PINs) coming from the California Department of Social Services over the course of the year, having a source who could track the most recent requirements gave community administrators the assurance that they were doing the right thing. Likewise, “Knowing that our work advising others, saving them the time to have to look up and read and follow constantly changing information contributed to the work of our frontline heroes” is one of the things that Edelstone says has kept him going through the pandemic.

Keeping people informed was another key responsibility of the Task Force. Whether through meetings with clinical teams or housing administrators, or through the website or weekly written updates, the Task Force prioritized giving residents, employees, visitors, vendors, and families the information they needed to feel confident in Covia’s response. Laura Darling, VP of Communications and Spiritual Care, says, “I didn’t expect to write an update every week for over a year, but I am so glad that we have the record of how we responded to this crisis. It feels like an ongoing conversation that has helped us all get through this.” She especially remembers an email that came from the Russian speaking residents of Bethany Center, thanking the maintenance staff for their dedication. “If we hadn’t opened those lines of communication, I would never have known about that. As it is, there are so many unsung front-line heroes and many more stories to hear.”

Karim Sultan, VP of Affordable Housing, says that his work on the Task Force “has been some of the most gratifying work I have done since I have been with organization. I felt a strong duty to protect residents and staff and the task force allowed me to participate in a process that facilitated that.”

Ron Schaefer, Chief Operating Officer, reflects, “I knew this before, but what has been valuable to me is that we have incredibly capable, smart, and wise people on this Task Force and in our communities, and I have been humbled and delighted seeing everyone shine in bringing their hearts, hands, and minds to this work.”

“I am very impressed with Senior Management’s commitment to keeping the residents and employees safe,” says Brinton. “I am proud to be working for an organization that actively balances the needs of its employees and residents all while keeping the organization poised for financial viability well into the future.”

***

The members of Covia’s COVID-19 Task Force are:

• Ron Schaefer, Chief Operating Officer
• Prab Brinton, VP of HR
• Chris Dana, VP of IT
• Laura Darling, VP of Communications and Spiritual Care
• Grant Edelstone, Senior Director of Risk Management
• Christopher Ichien, VP of Life Plan Operations
• Tracy Powell, VP of Community Services
• Cynthia Shelby, Regional Quality and Care Nurse
• Karim Sultan, VP of Affordable Housing

The post Reflections from the COVID-19 Task Force appeared first on Front Porch.

The webinar offered prospective residents the opportunity to ask questions about what is currently going on at Covia from a leadership perspective, including COVID-19 preparation, the upcoming affiliation, and adapting to socially distanced activities. Part 1 about Covia’s response to COVID-19 is below. Part 2 about the affiliation can be found here.

Preparation

Covia has approached the COVID-19 pandemic both from a community standpoint as well as system-wide. At the community level, Mary Linde, Executive Director at St. Paul’s Towers in Oakland, detailed how St. Paul’s prepared after hearing about COVID-19.

“When I first learned on January 20th that COVID-19 had hit Kirkland [Washington], we immediately brought our leadership team together to say ‘That’s two states up. How do we get ready for this migrating down here?’” Linde notes. “By January 27th, we had restricted outside visitation for travelers who had travelled out of the country to those tier 3 countries. And then progressively, through the month of February and by mid-March, we started sheltering in place.”

When California Governor Gavin Newsom shut down all but essential businesses, Linde says, “we looked at St. Paul’s Towers as though it were itself a village: What are the businesses that operate within this village, which of those are essential, and how do we carry those out safely?” She explains that initially care giving and meals were the essential businesses for St. Paul’s. With in-person dining not permitted, “we said, how do we do takeout at St. Paul’s Towers?” The team wrote guidelines for how to do safe takeout. “We set up two separate takeout staging areas in our community and we designated times for people to come at meals so we wouldn’t have crowding.”

From a system-wide perspective, Covia established a COVID-19 task force that met daily initially and now three times a week. Ron Schaefer, Covia’s Chief Operating Officer, who heads up the task force, explains that its role is to “keep in touch with the health directives that are coming from different locations and provides advisories to our communities to help the Executive Directors make sure that nothing gets by them that they need to know.” The taskforce also provides guidance around the evolving best practices for infection control and testing and ensures that each location has the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) needed.

Providing Connection

Even with visiting restrictions in place, prospective residents can connect with a community during this time.

“If you are interested in a particular community, we encourage you to reach out and talk to people at that community,” says Mary McMullin, Chief Strategy and Advancement Officer. Community marketing teams are all ready to do a virtual tour that meets your needs, including walking you through the community, creating a special video with your specific interests in mind, and video conferencing.

The marketing team can also connect you “with residents who are living at the community and you can talk to them,” McMullin highlights. Another great option is the community Facebook pages, which post updates and photos about what is going on. They can provide great insight into what events are taking place as well as what precautions the community is taking.

All communities have embraced new ways to stay connected, adapting programming so that residents have a full schedule of activities. Linde shares that St. Paul’s Towers is “doing a lot of activities through the in-house television, like exercises and cooking classes where they deliver ingredients to apartments and residents can follow along on the in-house channel or on Zoom.” The St. Paul’s Towers chaplain has also transitioned her programming to Zoom for book discussions and more. “We do a happy hour on Zoom every Tuesday night,” Linde notes. “It’s such a gift of connection.” St. Paul’s Towers has also created an ice cream truck complete with a signature jingle that delivers ice cream and treats to residents in their apartments. Linde says “If the residents ask for it, we are really trying to find a way to do it.”

Covia also offers connection programs that are accessible to everyone, utilized by residents in Covia communities as well as the wider public. Well Connected provides a full catalog of sessions that are available over the phone or online and are completely free. Sessions cover everything from arts and yoga to armchair travel and wellness. The current catalog of sessions is available here. For connecting one-on-one, Social Call matches older adult participants with volunteers for weekly meetings over the phone. Participants enjoy talking with others from the comfort of their home and these weekly meetings go a long way toward fostering the connections that social distancing has proven are a crucial part of wellness.

Although the challenges of responding to COVID-19 are real, Covia is still finding new and positive ways to make healthy communities, build connections, and stay engaged.

The post Covia Management Provides Insight into COVID-19 Preparation and Fostering Connection appeared first on Front Porch.