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March 29, 2024

FAQ #36: October 22, 2020 – Containing Answers from October 20th       

October 27, 2020

Answers to Staff Questions on Employee Health and Safety, Supplies and PPE, and HR Policies 

  The following FAQs were adapted from questions submitted by VNSNY staff for the CEO      Conference Calls hosted by  Marki Flannery  on  Tuesday,  October 20th. 

Employee Health and Safety    

Q. I already took my flu shot at my physician’s office.  Where can I send my flu report? 

A. Marian Haas, Chief Human Resources Officer:  I see the person who asked this question is an employee of VNSNY and uses our Workday system and our HRConnect system.  So you can open a case in Ask HR.  Attach your flu report to that case and send it off to HRConnect and we’ll get it right into your home health services file. 

Q. I attempted to get a flu shot in the Brooklyn office on Wednesday morning and was advised that the nurse wasn’t in.  The staff couldn’t give a timeline as to when she would be in.  I ended up going to Walgreens to get the shot.  Does anyone know what happened and was there a miscommunication? 

A. I’m glad that you were resourceful and you were able to get your shot anyway.  And I hope you’ve sent in the documentation to our health services department as Marian described earlier. Marian, do you know anything about the issue from last Wednesday? 

Marian Haas: Yes, I do.  Unfortunately, I think last Wednesday was our very first day of providing flu shots at the Brooklyn office and the nurse who was assigned there had some trouble with her commute and did not arrive until later in the morning.  We were alerted to this at about 9:00 a.m. and tried to make sure everyone at the Brooklyn office found out what was going on. 

So we’ve truly apologized for the delay for those people who showed up there hoping to get their shot right away.  In general, the nurses are asked to arrive 30 minutes before the start time that we indicate in the announcement about when flu shots are available.  So we do build in some time for delays like this but it was an unusually long one, unfortunately and yes, thank you for getting your flu shot. 

Supplies, Masks and PPE 

Q. I am a home health aide and I need a mask for my case. 

A. This was forwarded to James Rolla. Again, please reach out directly to your supervisor with these specific needs so that these questions can be addressed and not get lost in the conference call mailbox that’s only monitored once per week. 

Andria Castellanos, Chief of Provider Services: I do want to let all the home health aides know that an additional mailing of masks went out this week.  So they should be receiving masks in the mail over the next three to five business days.  So anticipate getting that.  Also I know there is a question coming up about gloves.  And in order for them to get gloves, they can e-mail [email protected]. and request that gloves be mailed to their hub.  So gloves will be mailed based upon a request.  Again, the e-mail is [email protected].  Or they can call their supervisor as well. 

Q. I was just wondering when we’re going to receive our long-overdue PPE.  It’s been a while since any gloves were sent out. Why did they stop sending gloves and masks?

A. As Andria just mentioned, there was a mailing that just went out, so you’ll be getting masks.  And to be able to receive gloves, Andria provided the information for that as well.  And always, you can reach out to your supervisor directly and they can assist you.  

HR Policies / Pay and PTO Policies 

Q. I used to work at Partners in Care three years ago.  I had surgery and needed time off.  If I wanted to return to work, what do I need to do? 

A. I’ve actually forwarded this request to our senior vice president at Partners in Care and they will be reaching out to you directly.  But for callers who are on the line, you just need to reach out to the Partners in Care Human Resources Department any time there was a question of this sort and they will be able to assist you.  

Q. On the occasion when the CERT team put you out from work, how is the employee paid? I was placed out of work for ten days and although I followed the advice about how to put my time in, my PTO was still used.  There are still some of us with seasonal allergies mimicking COVID symptoms.  My MD would have a better understanding of my symptoms than the CERT team. 

A. I think there are many reasons that the CERT team puts people out on leave.  If you’re out on leave because of travel, then yes, you must use your PTO because you are aware that if you travel to one of those states that are restricted that that would be an issue. If you’re out for exposure due to work or symptoms that have nothing to do with travel, those are evaluated on a case-by-case basis. I’m going to turn this over to Tony for more details.   

Tony Dawson, Vice President for Quality and Customer Experience: So yes, you call the CERT team and we would put you out based on a required quarantine and based on an exposure.  And then we work with our human resources side to decide around how long you should be out for and how you get paid for that time.  If you have travelled to a one of the targeted states and you come back from that travel, then we need to put you out for the required 14 days and you would be utilizing your PTO, if you made the choice to travel.   

Follow up: This was not due to travel, so the person is questioning why PTO was used. 

Tony and Marian, can you follow up offline to understand if the charge of PTO was warranted or not and respond to this individual? 

Tony Dawson:Yes, we’ll reach out to the individual directly.  Thank you. 

Marian Haas:Yes, that is the practice on this and if it needs to be changed because of the circumstances and the individual’s eligibility for other types of PTO than it will be changed. Thank you. 

Marki Flannery: Right.  And there’s an additional question from someone else regarding the same issue. So we will revisit this. Thanks for bringing it to our attention and we will follow back up directly with the employee and address this. And if PTO was incorrectly charged, then the person will be credited back their time. 

Q. I have a similar question as the previous clinician. I was instructed by the CERT team to stay out, not due to travel reasons and my PTO was utilized. 

A. This is another person. Marian and Tony, please follow up with this person to make sure that this was correctly done. 

Q. My question is in regard to a job opening.  I have a family member that’s looking for a job, a clerical position.  Are the position posting updated? 

A. Yes, our positions that are available from a recruitment standpoint are kept up-to-date. Marian, would you like to address this question? 

Marian Haas:Yes, if this individual family member has applied for the position and he or she would like to find out the status of her application, she can certainly call into our HRConnect number 212-609-7900 to reach somebody directly.  But all positions are posted and all applications are accepted through our Careers Web site.  

Administrative   

Q. Can the clinicians of all branches be a little nicer and more respectful when e-mailing or calling contract administration?  We’re trying our best to manage over 1000 orders daily being placed by certified homecare agency and hospice branches while also resolving the clinical staff issues and addressing their inquiries.  We appreciate our nurses, physical therapists and all clinical staff and the work they do especially during these difficult times. We’re working very hard and efficiently on making sure the patients obtain the supplies and services needed, but the back-and-forth e-mails, rude phone calls along with the clinicians questioning our roles and job functions with VNSNY is totally unfair and unacceptable.  As my mother always says, ‘You can get a lot more bees with honey than with vinegar.’ 

A. I thank you and I appreciate that.  And, you know, a little loving goes a long way.  And even today’s audio message talks about the importance of kindness.  So I recognize people are under distress.  But that doesn’t give us the right to be rude and challenge our colleagues.  We’re all trying to do our best here. 

Michael, do you have anything you’d like to add to this e-mail that was received in response? 

Michael Bernstein, Chief Administrative Officer: Some of the internal administrative groups report up through Sal Bastardi to me.  And I think it’s important that this was brought forward.  We believe from a little bit of research that this might be an isolated instance and conversations will take place.  But we work in a pressure-filled environment.  That’s not an excuse for treating a colleague poorly.  But we all recognize that we are in a pressure-filled environment quite often.  We work hard here to try to model the value of empathy.  And it’s important when you’re thinking about empathy to try to stay out of judgment, to try to take the perspective of the other person — as a saying goes, “to put yourself in someone’s shoes” — and to try to communicate your understanding of what someone else is going through. 

And if you can remember those four ideas, staying out of judgment, taking another perspective, putting yourself in someone’s shoes and communicating, we all think it’ll go a long way towards a better working relationship even under stress. So thank you for the question and we’ll continue to focus on this area. 

Q. When a staff asked a question on this call and there’s no apparent answer at the time of the call, when do you find the answer?  Is that answer shared with everyone as well even if they didnt ask that particular question?  I’m just curious because when I send in a question, I get a direct call or email back to me.  Is everyone privy to these answers? 

A. So unless a question is so specific that it would not be applicable to others, we do summarize the responses to the questions and we post on the COVID site on the intranet an FAQ and a recording following the call.  

Michael Bernstein:  Correct. If it’s a very individual and specific question, then yes, there is someone who connects with that individual to try to resolve their issue. But to every question that is asked, an answer is either provided verbatim on this call or an answer that summarizes our response to the question is posted by the end of the week, typically on Thursdays the calls occur on Tuesday, and the responses are typically posted on Thursdays in our COVID-19 Update section on our intranet. 

So when you go there, you will see the FAQ, the Frequently Asked Questions from the COVID-19 CEO conference call and you can click on that link and you can read the written answers. We also post the recordings. But you can scan through the written document and see the questions and see the answers.  

Marki Flannery: Thank you. And just for the home health aides who sent in those very specific questions, I had forwarded them all to James Rolla who had just responded to me that all questions have been received and will be resolved. So for those individuals, their issues will be addressed and/or they will be contacted directly. 

Q. What is the schedule for conference calls and support calls for employees?  

*Note: The CEO Conference calls are every Tuesday at 10:30am.  

A. The schedule of employee support calls can be found here.