Clinics prepared to keep patients, practitioners safe
Written by Jayma Malme
The Purdue School of Nursing is proud of its partnership with the North Central Nursing Clinics. During this pandemic the clinics have had to change their operations, just like every other health care facility. And they haven’t missed a beat in continuing to offer unprecedented care to medically underserved communities.
For many years the clinics have had an emergency plan, which was updated this past fall before even knowing what would happen with COVID-19. When the pandemic began, they were as prepared as possible. Extra personal protective equipment, or PPE, supplies were ordered and inventory was monitored often. Providers were quickly trained to use the telehealth capabilities that were already in place, and now two-thirds of visits are done remotely. Each in-person visit is screened to ensure safety, and visits are scheduled so that well visits are in the morning and sick visits in the afternoon.
Much of the clinic staff is working remotely, spending a lot of their time improving quality metrics. Daily meetings with staff and providers keep everyone up to date on what is happening with the COVID-19 pandemic. Meetings with the many health care partners has been beneficial for sharing information, ideas, best practices and more to help everyone remain at the cutting edge of what is happening and to maintain staff and patient safety while still providing high-quality health care.
In the clinics, staff body temperatures are checked every morning as they arrive. Patients wear masks and providers wear N95 masks and PPE. Because of added stress on the staff and providers, a program to share resources was created at Purdue University in which mental health services are provided to our employees through CAPS. Any employee can confidentially receive the mental help they need.
