Arrowhead Regional Medical Center (ARMC) was recently awarded the prestigious Quality Leaders Award by the California Association of Public Hospitals (CAPH) and the California Health Care Safety Net Institute (SNI) in a new category of “Special Recognition COVID-19 Response.” The award recognizes the outstanding and exceptional contributions made by the Medical Center and this multidisciplinary Skilled Nursing Facility Task Force in responding to COVID-19.
Early on during the pandemic, nursing homes and long-term care facilities emerged as among those caring for the most vulnerable patients to the disease, while experiencing among the highest mortality rates. In response to this crisis ARMC proactively formed a multidisciplinary Skilled Nursing Facility Outreach and Support (SO+S) Team to provide targeted interventions to sites experiencing outbreaks.
Functioning as part of a Countywide Multi-Department Task Force, teams were deployed to nursing homes to provide information and assistance on personal protective equipment (PPE); training on donning and doffing; training on infection control procedures, and to help with operational needs.
In San Bernardino County, the largest county geographically in the contiguous United States, there are close to 200 Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs), Congregate Living Facilities, and Intermediate Care facilities. ARMC along with the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health and the Department of Behavioral Health, put together a highly skilled support team that fanned out across the County. The team created relationships with facility leaders that in turn created “lifelines” in their time of need.
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