FAQ #37: October 29, 2020 – Containing Answers from October 27th
Answers to Staff Questions Employee Health and Safety, Patient Care and Clinical, Supplies and PPE, HR Policies, and Return to Work
The following FAQs were adapted from questions submitted by VNSNY staff for the CEO Conference Calls hosted by Marki Flannery on Tuesday, October 27th.
Employee Health and Safety
Q. Thank you for these calls. I am not sure if I missed this answer, but do we need to take the flu shot again? If we took the flu shot prior to the COVID-19 or the mandate by VNSNY, should I just provide proof?
A. There is a different flu vaccine every year. And if you took a flu shot prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, that was for last year’s flu season. So you need to get a flu shot again for this year’s flu season. And provide proof that you have had a flu shot since it became available which was late August or early September of 2020. So anything further on that from any of my colleagues?
Q. COVID cases seem to be rising in some areas. Is there a decision in regard to returning to the office?
A. COVID is rising in certain pocket neighborhoods within the New York City area, and we are seeing increases in some of the surrounding counties and particularly in New Jersey. We are still aiming to continue to do work in our offices to increase the number of people who return by middle of November. And we will share information about as we get closer to the date and work with all of you. And obviously, if we see that our COVID situation takes a turn for the worse, we will make smart choices about caring for everyone and being able to care for our patients.
Supplies, Masks and PPE
Q. I went to the supply room at the Brooklyn office and was disappointed that there are no more alcohol wipes. I really like them because they were a good size, smaller than the ones you buy in the plastic container and easy to carry in a small pouch. They’re also made with a plant-based alcohol and aloe which is better for your skin since regular alcohol dries the skin. Also, there’s no strong smell like regular alcohol and gel that makes me cough. So please consider restocking this item.
A. A response was provided by the supply room to this person. Michael, would you like to provide that response?
Michael Bernstein, Chief Administrative Officer: On the first part of what was asked, the GERMisept multipurpose alcohol wipes (as they were known) — we had a limited quantity in stock, and we received the ones we did have in stock from a donation. And we’re unable to order more of them at this time, unfortunately. We do have alcohol swabs that are in the supply room.
On the second part of the question, and I think we touched on this last week as well, there is a CDC standard for hand sanitizer. It needs to contain at least 80% alcohol. When we first acquired sanitizer in the early part of the pandemic and we had the gel sanitizer, we then learned that it contained less than 75% alcohol which was not CDC standard, so we made this switch to the sanitizer that is 80% alcohol. The gel actually had only 66% alcohol.
So we can provide empty, small plastic bottles. We can do some fitting so that it fits in the roller bag which was part of the question. But the answer to that question is we need to adhere to the CDC guidelines.
Q. On the last call it was stated that aides can call or email to request supplies; however, when they do, they as well as their supervisors are being told that they can only request by email once. And after that, they have to mail in supply forms. Can you please clarify so everyone is on the same page, because every time the aides request by email, the supervisors are being asked why. We would like everyone to be on the same page. The response in the emails say to use supply forms to avoid fraud, waste and abuse – but whether they are requesting by email or supply form, how does that monitor waste or abuse?
A. So I’m going to again turn to one of my colleagues to ask if anyone can respond to this question?
Andria Castellanos, Chief of Provider Services: Marki, I think the best thing to do with this is to get a formal statement of exactly how to do this out to all of the home health aides. We really don’t want our home health aides to struggle with getting supplies and apologize for any confusion around this. But I’m going to ask that Jim Rolla and his team gets information out to the home health aides of exactly how to do this. So stay tuned for very clear information on this.
Patient Care and Clinical
Q. I am a physical therapist in the Bronx and I recently had gotten two parking tickets in areas where the permit allows me to park. I disputed both of them. The first one came back upheld and I was found guilty, even though I provided pictures of my car with the parking permit displayed. I’m waiting on the second verdict. I’m curious if anyone else is having this issue and if there’s anything we can do to remind the Department of Transportation that we are getting erroneously ticketed out here. If we don’t have a parking permit, we cannot see the patients as there are very limited parking spots and there is only alternate side of the street parking one day a week. More people are working from home and they’re not moving their car.
A. Andria Castellanos: We have heard of a few people who have gotten parking tickets. And we have successfully been able to argue that the ticket was inappropriate. The one thing you should do is ensure that you have the letter on your dashboard along with the permit — and that letter can be gotten from the regional offices. I think that’s one thing. Michael, Marian, I don’t know if you have anything else to add to that.
Marian Haas, Chief Human Resources Officer: I would just add that we can share this feedback again with our government affairs staff Dan Lowenstein and Tristan McDonald who were instrumental in making these parking permits happen for us. And, as Andria said, please keep that information prominently displayed.
Q. Will the parking permits be extended beyond December 31? They save us so much time and money.
A. We will continue to work with the mayor’s office to be able to try to get those parking permits extended. We have been trying for years to make them permanent. We were able to finally get some success due to COVID-19. So if COVID-19 continues to be a threat to our city, we’re hopeful that they will continue to be made available and we will continue to try to advocate to get them made permanent. But I can’t promise and as you know, with the July 1 release, we didn’t find out until days before. So we will continue to work on this.
Q. I find myself giving patients tape, gauze, and Q-tips from my bag, as most patients with managed care insurance do not have what they need in the home. These are just some examples. It appears that when I inquire about insurance, 95% is the managed care provider. What can be done about patients who are waiting too long to receive supplies?
A. I’m going to turn to one of my colleagues if anyone has any thoughts. And I don’t know which managed care plans we’re talking about here.
Andria Castellanos: So we know that we have a lot of difficulty with our managed care companies providing durable medical equipment and supplies in a timely fashion. And we’ve asked Devon Woodley who works with our managed care companies and negotiates with them to bring this up with all of our managed care companies. We don’t control the insurance companies or their timeliness and what they do in terms of approvals and even the delivery of this equipment. And so this is a very difficult challenge for us. We’ve identified it as a challenge, and we will continue to work with the managed care companies to try to improve the service to our patients.
HR Policies / Pay and PTO Policies
Q. I am a Home Health Aide with Partners in Care. If I don’t take my vacation time in 2020, will they give me my vacation allowance at the end of the year or do I need to take my vacation time?
A. Marian Haas: Staff who work for Partners in Care and are working in the five boroughs of New York City represented by 1199 are eligible to receive some of their PTO or vacation allowance out at the end of the year. And what isn’t paid out will be carried over into the next year. If you’ve worked in one of the outer regions, you have an accrual that never goes away, never expires. You continue to accrue time to a maximum. We can follow up specifically with this individual if that doesn’t answer her question.
Q. From speaking to my mom who waited in line over three hours to vote and also watching the news where it’s three to five hours in many places to vote, can you consider giving us more than two hours this year?
A. We are not able to provide more than the two-hour cushion. Again, remember you have four hours from when the polls open until the workday to be able to vote. And there are many options to vote. The lines that are extremely long now is because there were many people who are going out to vote in advance. But what I’ve heard from some of my colleagues here in the office is that the lines were shorter. They were able to get in and out in less than 20 minutes yesterday.
So I think it depends on location, but we cannot extend because we do have an operation to run and if we have staff that are not here, we are going to be at a disadvantage to being able to manage our business because our patients do need to have care arranged and delivered in spite of it being election day.
Q. This is a regarding voting. You know, there is early voting going on right now. And as you know many people are trying to vote early and some of the hours that are available on the weekends, including last weekend, will be available again this weekend. And some of those polls open early and go as late as 7:00 pm. So check the schedule in your area because you can vote in advance of election day if you would prefer to do that.
A. Early on, you know, beginning this past Saturday, the lines were extremely long because it was the first day. But they are starting to lessen now because I think most people are hoping to vote prior to election day.
Administrative
Q. Next week can the CEO call be on Wednesday due to Tuesday being election day?
A. We will look at the calendar to see if that is possible. I’m not sure if it’s already scheduled for Tuesday and whether Wednesday can be accommodated. But we will look into that. And then you’ll look for the notice that gets emailed out.