Message to Our Staff During This Crisis
March 30, 2020We are incredibly grateful for the dedication, patience, and hard work of our physicians, advanced practitioners and staff.
Some of the safety measures we are taking include:
- Assuming that every patient is potentially infected or colonized with a pathogen that could be transmitted in a health care setting.
- Screening patients and visitors for symptoms of COVID-19 (e.g., fever, cough, difficulty breathing, loss of smell/taste) before entering our offices.
- Ensuring proper use of personal protection equipment including wearing masks when seeing patients.
- Reminding patients that visitors are strongly discouraged and limited to one.
- Maintaining a distance of 6 feet of patients, especially those suspected of COVID-19.
- Evaluating patients with acute respiratory illness promptly.
- Cleaning the room and all medical equipment completely with appropriate cleaning solutions between visits.
- Ensuring that employees do not come to work if they are sick.
Unfortunately, we had to furlough many staff members during this time. We are committed to all staff returning when the state deems it is safe to return and our patient volume resumes. The decision to furlough staff was an extremely difficult one but had to be made balancing the needs of employees, patients, and the overall health of our organization. Our physicians are dedicated to making sure our employees are safe and support their decision to stay home for the safety of their family.
We also are keeping the lines of communication open with all members of the Starling team. This includes an employee email to share feedback, concerns, or improvement suggestions: COVI-19@starlingphysicians.com.
We are incredibly grateful to everyone from our front and back office staff to our incredible physicians and advanced practitioners. Thank you for all that you do. We will get through this together!