August 5, 2020 @ 4:45 p.m.
Every Wednesday, Dr. Sherrill Brown, Medical Director, Infection Prevention, Berenice Constant, VP, Government Relations, and Elizabeth Sepetjian, AVP, Talent Management (HR), give an update for clinic and corporate line of business leaders. You can read today's notes here. 
Sherrill Brown, MD
Berenice Constant
Liz Sepetjian
Questions & Communications

We welcome your questions, suggestions and input. We do review each submission and respond appropriately, so please continue to email us—click here. Know that this is a safe space and that most questions will be answered individually prior to being shared anonymously with staff.

We also encourage you to review communications, such as the Wednesday-only COVID-19 huddles and email alerts, COVID-19 resource and policy pages on Town Square, altamed.org/coronavirus, and any regular emails you receive.

FAQs posted below may not be comprehensive, so please check the FAQs in each weekly alert to be sure your questions have not already been answered.
Q & A of the Week

Q: Lunches have all been scheduled at the same time. There is not enough space to accommodate the staff with social distancing. Why are we no longer staggering lunches?

A: Lunch and rest breaks should be staggered whenever possible to ensure that employees can adhere to social distancing guidelines. Please reach out to your supervisor to discuss your concerns. If you do not feel comfortable discussing with your supervisor, please contact your HR Business Partner directly. 

Reminder: When ordering food or visiting a restaurant, please make sure the establishment adheres to safety practices, such as workers and customers using face coverings; frequent hand washing by their staff; regular cleaning and disinfection; and physical distancing for outdoor seating.
We’re Here For You, Now More Than Ever

As essential workers, it is our personal responsibility to follow safety guidelines both at work and at home. We continue to remind all our employees and staff to adhere to our safety guidelines:
  1. Wear your masks – Face masks are to be worn at all times over your nose and mouth (except when drinking or eating), and should be stored properly or discarded.
  2. Maintain hand hygiene – Staff should have easy access to hand sanitizer dispensers to clean hands frequently, and should wash hands for 20 seconds at a time.
  3. Practice physical distancing – Six feet apart from other individuals whether inside or outside.
  4. Wipe down any work surfaces you touch.
  5. Patient-facing staff, including front office, should wear a face shield or eye covering in addition to a face mask—avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth.
  6. Employees must wear appropriate PPE when on site.
Thank you for wearing your masks and physical distancing!
Employee Testing Update and Clinic Reminders

Employee Testing
An email was sent yesterday from Zoila Escobar, Senior Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, and President of the AltaMed Foundation, about COVID-19 employee testing. In order to ensure the continued safety of our staff, patients, and participants, and consistent with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations, all employees will be tested for COVID-19 at regular intervals. A policy on employee cyclic employee surveillance testing is forthcoming.

The CDC recommends testing asymptomatic health care personnel, even without known or suspected exposure to COVID-19, who work in special settings, such as nursing homes. Because our PACE sites operate under similar risks as nursing homes, we are beginning with PACE employees at all locations who have extended contact with participants. AltaMed PACE - Covina will be the first location tested.

Non-PACE employees will have access to testing through employee health. We are currently in discussions with a new laboratory and should finalize this in the next two weeks. The turnaround time for results will be 24 – 48 hours. Once there is an agreed upon communication for employee testing for non-PACE employees, this will be distributed accordingly.

Clinic Updates
Beginning today, we will start holding clinic-wide huddles. Please share huddle notes with staff and those who may not have access to their emails. Also, clinics should remember to order vaccines through VFC. These vaccines should be available in clinic. 
Update Your Emergency Contact Information

Employee safety is always our priority. Now, more than ever, it is important to ensure that all employees review and update their personal and emergency contact information:
  • Log in to Town Square
  • Under Human Resources, select My HR Services
  • Click Your Profile
  • Update your Personal Information and Emergency Contacts

This information is kept confidential and used only for emergency purposes. If you need assistance, please contact [email protected] or call (323) 720-5678, Option 0.
AltaMed in the News

AltaMed President and CEO Cástulo de la Rocha was part of a distinguished panel of civic leaders who joined the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative for a July 23 press conference to release a 21st Century Latino agenda. The agenda addresses the spectrum of policy areas that directly impact the health and safety, political voice, and economic opportunity of Latinos and other communities of color.

Also on the panel were:
  • Sonja Diaz, Founding Director, Latino Policy & Politics Initiative
  • Hon. Lorena Gonzalez, Chair, California Latino Legislative Caucus 
  • Hon. Maria Elena Durazo, Vice Chair, California Latino Legislative Caucus
  • Thomas A. Saenz, President & General Counsel, MALDEF 

To hear the entire press conference, click here (de la Rocha is featured at 6:16).
Please Note: If you are contacted by the media with questions about the coronavirus outbreak or for any other reason, please email Veronica Orozco, Sr. Manager, Public Relations. The Public Relations team monitors all media coverage of AltaMed (social and traditional platforms) to uphold our reputation. If you have questions and concerns regarding media coverage, please call Veronica at (323) 482-3073. If you'd like to read news releases from AltaMed, visit our external website, AltaMed.org under Newsroom.