Experiences on the frontline: Your WellSky COVID-19 Weekly Briefing
The WellSky COVID-19 Weekly Briefing is published every Tuesday and covers the top news and guidance for home health, hospice, and personal care providers. This week’s edition by renowned healthcare policy consultant Sharon Harder, president of C3 Advisors, LLC, is out now. Click here to download. (It’s free.)
Editor’s pick from this week’s briefing
Networking has been difficult during the COVID-19 pandemic. As industry conferences have been cancelled or moved online, most of us haven’t had the benefit of getting to learn from the experiences of our peers. A story in this week’s briefing tries to remedy that. In “Experiences on the frontline: A tale of two providers,” Sharon Harder speaks to leaders at two agencies — thousands of miles apart — to understand the challenges they are experiencing and the strategies that are bringing them success.
Linda Murphy, RN, BSN, COS-C, CDP, RN-BC, the chief operating officer and founder of Concierge Home Care in Florida, reports that her agency has significantly amped up its use of telehealth. Although the Concierge team started using telehealth for selected types of patient interventions about two years ago, they are now conducting daily virtual visits with patients and daily care conferences during the pandemic. Telehealth now utilizes its own virtual care team of nurses.
Kris Carter, chief executive officer of Aspire Home Health and Hospice in Utah, and her director of nursing, Wendi Snell, RN, found their emergency preparedness plan put doubly to the test in mid-March. On March 18, just as the COVID-19 pandemic was beginning to escalate, a 5.7 magnitude earthquake rocked Salt Lake City. The agency leadership team moved directly into “incident command” mode. As the agency’s clinical leader, Wendi proactively began a process of continuous staff teaching on infection control. Masks were required immediately, and staff members were asked to record any signs or symptoms daily along with their temperature. Anticipating that access to personal protective equipment (PPE) inventory was a potential problem, the Aspire team put their creativity to work by organizing a volunteer “sewing bee” to make masks and gowns.
Home health and hospice providers didn’t have a playbook for how to handle the pandemic, so these agency leaders had to be smart, resourceful, and tenacious. We can learn a lot from their experiences in this powerful, real story. Read more in the briefing now.
Also in this week’s briefing
NEWS | The World Health Organization issues new guidance on masks New guidance from the WHO stresses the importance of masks for both healthcare professionals and the general public. Read more…
NEWS | COVID-19 modifications to the CMS innovation models
CMS plans to modify provisions of the Medicare Innovations program. New guidance includes changes to methodology and reporting. Read more…
COMPLIANCE | The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) continues to evolve
The Senate passed and the president signed the Paycheck Protection Flexibility Act, but loan forgiveness is still in question. Read more…
COMPLIANCE | CMS issues new enforcement guidance on nursing home surveys
CMS has announced new enforcement actions for nursing homes. Home health and hospice providers should watch carefully. Read more…
CLINICAL | New data reporting guidelines for COVID-19 testing
New guidelines for reporting testing data will go into effect for home health and hospice providers no later than August 1. Read more…
ADMINISTRATIVE | NAHC surveys providers about workplace safety
The National Association for Home Care & Hospice is surveying providers on workplace safety issues, specifically regarding recent protests. Read more…