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COVID-19 with Daniel Fessler

During our zoom meeting tonight, we had Daniel Fessler, Regional Director at HCR ManorCare, as our guest speaker. He decided to focus his speech on the global pandemic we are currently navigating. The first thing he talked about was the progression of the virus and how quickly they had to make changes to their staffing and procedures. As of today, they are taking employee temperatures twice each day and looking at isolation units to treat COVID-19 patients. ManorCare has had employees test positive for the disease as well as patient deaths and recoveries. Him and his team have definitely seen the highs and lows of this pandemic.

Fessler said that his biggest challenge is the workforce shortage as the positive cases in the building continue to increase. They have strict protocols for determining if employees should be quarantined for 14 days before being able to work again. Another challenge for the administration is figuring out how to pay employees who are not working. They do have quarantine pay, but it depends on the individual and their situation on whether they receive the pay or have to use their PTO. Some employees want to come in and work and others are stressed out with younger children at home, etc. Additionally, they are having a gown and mask shortage in the facility. They have opened additional supply lines to comply with shortages and it's getting better, but still isn't ideal.

He also talked about preserving PPEs because they are asked to reuse safety gear each day. The CDC has said that it is safe to keep the PPEs in a brown paper bag when not being worn because the bag allows them to breath. There has been a little bit of resistance with the employees, but they are learning to cope with the circumstances. Mr. Fessler said he does not think things are going to go back to normal anytime soon because so many industry changes have been made.

His advice to upcoming graduates is to be flexible upon entering the workforce. It takes training to be able to run a building and be in charge of so many people in one facility. Patience is also key when trying to get into a leadership role, getting your foot in the door is very important.

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