The Axis team is on the front lines of the COVID-19 response in the Tri-Valley. We’d like to update our community friends on our efforts and on which services we are currently offering. Our top priorities are ensuring patient access to essential medical and behavioral health services, and providing leadership for our patients, staff and the community in the effort to prevent the spread of Coronavirus. Our entire team is working around-the-clock to make this happen – even though faced with many challenges!
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Axis is Open and Providing Essential Health Services for Our Patients
Under the direction of Axis’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Dawnell Moody, Axis has mobilized and put in place all federal, state and county Covid-19 protocols and practices so that we can maintain essential patient health services. We are doing everything necessary to help our patients stay healthy and to minimize their use of urgent or emergency services during this time when these higher levels of care must be available for Covid-19 patients.
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Dr. Dawnell Moody, Chief Medical Officer, provides leadership
from the Axis Incident Command System (ICS) Center.
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We’ve changed our system of care so that more than 90% of medical and behavioral health visits are now being done by telephone. This ensures that patients still get “seen” for medical and behavioral health needs, including getting critical medications for chronic illnesses. We are also reaching out by phone to our most vulnerable patients to ensure they have food and medications on hand while sheltering in place.
We’ve established a sealed-off “clean clinic” for pre-natal and well-child visits at our Hacienda site so that essential care requiring an in-person visit with a provider remains available and safe. In a separate area at our clinic site, we are providing necessary women’s health services, immunization services for our youngest patients, and required care for patients with non-COVID health issues. Our dental clinic is open every day for emergency care. All enrollment and patient support services continue, but are being conducted by phone. This allows our patients to continue applications and enrollment in Medi-Cal, WIC, CalFresh and Covered California—which are all especially important at this time. Our routine dental services, as well as acupuncture and chiropractic services, are temporarily closed and will reopen when the crisis ends.
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Answering All Calls at 925-462-1755
Our call center is fully activated and responding to all calls. Call center staff includes our triage nurses, and we’ve added more staff to handle an increased call volume due to questions about COVID-19. Our triage nurses are especially critical in these efforts, assisting all callers with information regarding COVID-19 and related concerns. As recommended by the CDC, our triage nurses are also assisting patients who have non-critical COVID-symptoms in managing their care at home. This is an important part of the front line defense effort to isolate those who are ill in their homes and preventing exposure at medical facilities or in the community. We are also happy to respond to COVID-related concerns from any member of the community who calls us.
4,000 lbs. of Food & 150 Cars!
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To keep everyone safe, for March we changed our monthly farmer’s market food distribution event to a drive-thru event. Together (but 6 ft. apart) staff bagged up 4,000 lbs. of food from the Alameda County Community Food Bank. While patients remained in their cars, our staff placed bags of healthy food in the trunks of more than 150 cars. In total, more than 188 households, representing 690 people, received food that day. Sadly, with the more stringent shelter in place regulations put into place by Alameda County on April 2, we need to put our food event on hiatus until the crisis is over. However, we are working with our community partners to ensure our patients access food elsewhere in our community.
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Patients received nutritious and fresh food to help sustain their health.
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Gratitude for our Amazing Community
Our community has come together to work collaboratively in addressing the health needs of the Tri-Valley. We are grateful to the cities of Dublin, Livermore and Pleasanton, who are working with us to meet the need for personal protective equipment (PPE), such as N95 masks, and to Stanford Health Care - ValleyCare, for partnering with us on patient testing and care needs. We are also grateful to our fellow safety-net service providers that are supporting our patients with food, shelter and other essential resources through this crisis. We continue to be challenged by a lack of PPE for our staff and difficulties in testing availability – but we are grateful for the many members of our community who have come forward with offers to assist.
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Can You Sew? Axis Needs Masks
Axis is facing a shortage of masks for our staff and patients. If you are someone who sews and can make and donate masks to us, we would be very grateful. Full instructions for making a sewn mask from cotton material can be found
here
. Please email Valerie Jonas at
[email protected]
if you are able to help.
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Resources for the Crisis
Our website has up-to-date information on CDC guidance, operational changes at Axis, and resources for you and your family during shelter-in-place. We hope you find these supportive and helpful. Please visit
www.axishealth.org
.
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