It is True Care’s mission to protect our clients, home health aides and our nurses. COVID-19 is a new virus that has required the world to quickly adapt and find ways to stay safe; as a trusted Home Care Agency, we immediately put protocols in place to ensure safety and continued quality of care for our clients. We continue to follow city, state and federal guidelines, and have implemented many initiatives and programs to address the concerns of infection from COVID-19.
Here is an outline of policies we have in place to ensure your safety:
- Testing for home health aides and nurses: The availability of swab and antibody testing has increased over the last couple of weeks, unfortunately, the reliability of the testing is still in question. We continue to rely on the state and CDC for updates regarding testing as the situation develops. We’ve shared information on our COVID page to include resources for updates on locations and times available for staff to receive this testing. While this testing is not required, it is available for free for all New Yorkers.
- Self monitoring: All True Care caregivers (home health aides and nurses) have been instructed to self monitor themselves daily, prior to seeing patients, for signs and symptoms of COVID-19. They are required to report all symptoms to True Care immediately, and report known and suspected exposure to COVID-19.
- Symptomatic or sick caregivers: If a caregiver is presumed or confirmed positive for COVID-19 they are required to stay home as per the Department of Health guidelines and cannot return to work until they are cleared by their physician or the clinical department at True Care.
- Communicating with caregivers: Text message reminders, reminders through our phone app and email updates have been used to frequently stay in touch with all home health aides and nurses and send important reminders and new policy updates about COVID-19.
- Training: All caregivers have received training about COVID-19, special precautions, use of personal protective equipment and other important information. This training is provided online in all languages and in person at all True Care locations and is required for all caregivers.
- Onsite precautions: All True Care offices are maintaining social distancing and infection control measures including required masks, temperature screening upon entry, limited class sizes and frequent disinfection of surfaces.
- General safety/precautions: Personal protective equipment is being provided for all True Care client’s as per current regulations. All True Care office locations also have PPE available for pickup. Masks are required and available for all caregivers.
- Personal protective equipment - COVID: If the client is confirmed positive for COVID-19, additional personal protective equipment will be delivered to the client’s home including gowns and eye protection. Requests can be made by phone, in person or through the True Care Website. These platforms are reviewed and updated regularly.
- Coronavirus hotline: True Care has a coronavirus hotline to accept calls regarding any questions or issues related to the pandemic. A True Care clinical team member is available to provide answers to questions and guidance regarding a variety of COVID-19 health concerns. If you would like to reach our clinical team, please contact 929-474-9322.
Our team is available to answer any of your questions, we are here to support you and address any concerns during this challenging time.
