ALBION — Mary Ann Pettibon of Oak Orchard Well being, was lately chosen by the Well being Assets and Companies Administration to talk at a nationwide convention.
One of many three CEOs chosen, her matter targeted on how Oak Orchard Well being used the American Rescue Plan (H8F) Funding to maintain the neighborhood wholesome through the pandemic.
Oak Orchard’s imaginative and prescient and dental companies had shut down instantly in March 2020 and all non-emergency visits have been canceled. Though they shortly transitioned to telehealth, visits decreased 60 p.c that month and of these visits, 72 p.c had been modified to phone.
“So it was early March in 2020 after we began to have a number of our farm employees arrive in our nation,” Pettibon stated throughout her presentation. “We do present transportation companies to not solely all of our sufferers, but additionally to our migrant and seasonal farm employee inhabitants as nicely.”
Nonetheless, throughout that point, Oak Orchard’s transportation companies have been very restricted. Many migrant farm employees don’t drive and aren’t eligible for insurance coverage that covers the price of transportation.
They relied on Oak Orchard’s skill to offer transportation for them. So new procedures have been put in place to disinfect the vans and display screen employees with excessive temperatures.
There have been challenges as nicely.
Newly arrived employees had a scarcity of schooling about COVID-19 and protecting provides.
“So our function was to exit to the camps and distribute private protecting tools and in addition to teach our employees on quarantining pointers and social distancing, and all the pieces we knew at that cut-off date in regards to the pandemic,” she stated.
A scarcity of web entry additionally exists in rural communities, which is a big barrier for Oak Orchard to even present all of the telehealth visits they want to present. Because of this, they needed to resort to phone visits.
To interrupt down the obstacles, a number of the Oak Orchard outreach employees truly got here from the migrant farm employee inhabitants — which means they may relate one-on-one with the newly arriving employees in the neighborhood. Oak Orchard additionally mailed a letter to the farmers themselves explaining their checklist of companies and the way they may work collectively to handle the pandemic.
On the finish of 2020, the vaccine grew to become obtainable. Oak Orchard supplied the farm employees schooling on vaccines, and 6 COVID vaccine clinics have been performed at farms.
“We proceed to work with our farm employees and we proceed to offer schooling for COVID vaccines and testing,” Pettibon stated. “We additionally let the farm employees know in regards to the Households First Coronavirus Response Act.”
As of Sept. 30, 2020 all agricultural employees obtain one hour of sick time for each 20 hours labored. Many employees weren’t conscious they certified.
Utilizing the H8F funding, Oak Orchard employed nurse practitioners to help in vaccine administration. In addition they carried out a name heart with 9 full-time associates to help with incrased cellphone name volumes related to scheduling of COVID testing and vaccinations.
The phone system was equally upgraded to accommodate the rise in name volumes, whereas janitorial assist was secured to utterly disinfect affected person areas every night time. Officers likewise invested in further IT tools to accommodate a distant workforce.
Extra funding went to purchasing extra COVID testing provides, masks, gloves, robes, N-95’s, plexiglass shields, together with moveable mills for 5 places which have been storing vaccines.
“We actually needed to improve our security protocols,” Pettibon stated when speaking about classes discovered. “Not just for our employees however for all of the sufferers that we served as nicely. A few of our new insurance policies and procedures deal with employee safety, affected person screening and administration, cleansing and disinfecting, air flow protocols, and so on.”
She additionally stated Oak Orchard acknowledged the worth of telehealth companies and the way they’ll take away obstacles for care in sufferers. In addition they discovered that fast, sensible change is essential.
“We needed to act quick,” Pettibon stated. “There wasn’t an entire lot of time for us to take a seat again and plan and suppose. With all of the schooling we have been getting from the hubs and the well being departments, we needed to make choices very, in a short time to handle the pandemic and what was taking place throughout our area.”