March 24, 2020 @ 6:45 p.m.
Latest Statistics

 Los Angeles County: 662 cases, 11 deaths
Orange County: 152 cases, 1 death
California: 2,102 cases, 40 deaths
U.S. Overall: 44,183 cases, 544 deaths
*Please note, due to technical issues, the recording of today's daily 7:45 a.m. briefing is not available.
HR and Staffing

COVID-19 Dress Code Temporary Guidelines for Patient-facing
and Administrative Staff

To facilitate infection control measures and the ability to launder clothes daily, AltaMed is temporarily adjusting its dress code. This policy is subject to modification in response to any Company-recognized national, state, local or business emergency. You can find this temporary policy along with temporary policies on Telecommuting, Personal Cellphone Use, and COVID-19 workforce management on Town Square.
Clinical Operations

  • AltaMed will start screening staff in clinics for any COVID-19 symptoms. A memo and the screening process are forthcoming.
  • If staff are coming down with symptoms or may have had an exposure, they can reach out to Dr. Brown confidentially.
  • Front office staff should wear a face shield and a face mask if they are going to be checking in patients in the lobby.
  • Please clean face shield between uses.
  • Face shield, face mask, gown, N95 mask, and gloves should be worn for COVID-19 or high-risk Upper Respiratory Infections (URI) visits. 
  • In terms of cleaning your work areas, wipe everything down once to remove dirt and a second time to disinfect.
  • Telephone visits – we began transition of regularly scheduled appointments to telephone visits for patients who consent. 
  • Drive-up Regional Evaluation Centers are for evaluation, assessment and discharge of patients with Upper Respiratory Infections (URI), for patients that have been referred there from the Patient Service Center, telehealth providers, or other clinics. It is not necessarily for testing. It is a process by which we can direct the flow of COVID-19 symptomatic patients, to help protect our staff and other patients visiting our clinics for non-URI and non-COVID-19 related issues.
Government Relations

Congress is expected to vote on a roughly $2 trillion dollar economic stimulous package that includes funding for Community Health Centers. The Health Center Advocacy Network (HCAN) is asking Congress to pass:

  • 5-year reauthorization of the CHC Fund and the National Health Service Corps ($47.57 billion), as well as the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education program ($632.5 million).
  • $3.4 billion to meet the needs for coronavirus response and emergency preparedness immediately, plus $5 billion over 5 years for future emergencies ($8.4 billion total).
  • An immediate legislative fix to allow health centers to be included as an “eligible provider” and gain the ability to bill as “distant sites” through Medicare. 
  • Please click the button below to email your Congressmember and urge them to vote for the HCAN's demands.
Questions?
If you have questions about anything relating to COVID-19, click here to submit them. They will be reviewed by our Covid-19 task force and answered in our next alert or as soon as possible. Thank you.
Please Note: If you are contacted by the media with questions about the coronavirus outbreak, or for any other reason, please contact: Veronica Orozco , Sr. Manager, Public Relations via email. 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.