Hilltoppers,
Keeping our personal protection equipment (PPE) at the necessary levels is no small task, especially during a global pandemic when we are competing with every facility, in every town, in every country! Luckily our supply elves have been working overtime! Did you know we use 2,700 pairs of gloves daily for normal operations? We are also anticipating using 400 procedural masks daily during this pandemic. Thankfully, our magical workers just secured a shipment of 24,000 masks. In addition, they have been busy tracking down face shields, gowns, booties, and head coverings to keep us all protected.
Working the local channels has been equally important, and over the past three weeks we have received over 1,000 cloth masks made by volunteers. This generous outpouring of support has made a huge difference while we have been waiting on the procedural masks. These masks will help facilitate our face-to-face contact with clients in our community-based programs in the future as Colorado plans the slow transition from Stay-at-Home to Safer-at-Home.
Who are these unsung heroes? They are our very own logistics team and the Purchasing Department, consisting of Tami Gallegos, Cindy Rockwood, Brenda Fransen, and Chris Hadeen. They work tirelessly, all hours of the day and night, to find us what we need to keep our operations going. A major thank you goes out to them for demonstrating our mission of people first.
Another logistical update of note is our COVID-19 testing availability. We have very recently (today) partnered with Community Hospital and will now have access to the same quick turnaround COVID-19 tests the hospital is using. This is great news as we can now administer tests and get results in 48 hours. This will shorten the quarantine time for employees and give an additional safety measure for new residents coming in our programs.
Thank you to everyone for your continued efforts in keeping our supplies stocked and our residents and employees healthy with proper use of PPE.
Together, we got this,
-Mike
